Of Trinkets and Time Travel
by jldew
Summary: A self insert gets sent back in time to inhabit the body of Tom Riddle, moments before Albus Dumbledore arrives with his Hogwarts Letter. Absolutely nothing bad can come from this, right? Slash fic.
1. Chapter 1

We've all read this story. A little boy with a lightning scar and uncaring relatives. The spitting image of his father, with the eyes of his mother. Five trinkets, a deadly reptile, and our hero. a goblin blade, and three friends who took on the greatest evil, and earned their happy ending.

Or, someone decides to mix it up, throw in a ROB, a dash of humor, and ends up with a SI waking up in the cupboard just as owl's make their delivery and change the little orphan's life for the better. They fix everything. The love interest's psychological trauma is averted. The rat is caught. The godfather is pardoned. The spare is saved. The statues never come to life. I wish life was that simple.

I woke up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, and got out of bed. The first thing that indicated something was amiss was when I opened my eyes and noticed that I wasn't blind without the pair of glasses that had followed me since my days as a teenager. The ever longing craving for nicotine was nonexistent. The second thing I noticed was that my surrounding were not that of my bedroom. This was a shabby little ten by ten room with a shabbier wardrobe and threadbare sheets. I hurriedly dressed, finding ill fitting and ill mended clothes in the wardrobe.

I looked around the room. There were a collection of shells on the window. A picture of the coast. It was brick, and old. Where was I?

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

I turned, and a matronly old woman opened my door.

"Tom, there's a visitor here for you." That wasn't my name.

An old man entered the room, he was dressed in a suit, and had a rediculous scarf around his neck.

"Hello Tom, my name is Albus Dumbledore, it's a pleasure to meet you." He said, his eyes twinkling, and extended a hand.

Suddenly, I knew where I was at, and who I was, and boy, was I fucked.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay. Supreme Mugwump of the Wizengamot. Probs played a part in creating instant wealth for Flamel. Oh hell. He can read minds. Yep. Doomeds. One obliviate away from done, or a permanent bunk in the department of mysteries.

Wait, is the super telepathy canon or fanon? I cursed myself for reading to much fanfic. Stupid Super!Harry stories. Okay. Avoid his gaze. Play the shy probably abused orphan. I can do this.

"It's nice to meet you, sir." I said, looking downward. Hopefully acting like a shy, poor orphan. Please sir, may I have some 'ore. Just channel Oliver Twist. You've got this.

"Hello Tom."

The matron, Mrs Cope? Cole. Her name was Cole. This knowledge came from where? Huh, apparently I have some of Tom's memories. Including how he was using his wandless magic. That will be useful. Anyhow. Mrs Cole, Left us alone. With the strange guy with the weird scarf. Wow, child abuse isn't a thing in ye old London apparently. Way to do your duty and leave me with the old dude.

I racked my brains to remember the conversation from Half-Blood. I hated that movie.

"Are you a doctor?" I asked. Dumbledore gave me an odd look.

"She wanted me to see a doctor. She thinks I'm mad. Things happen around me. I was busy one day, and I couldn't clean my room. When I woke up, my room had cleaned itself. It's stayed clean ever since. I can make things move by themselves. My clothes will dry themselves."

"I assure you, you're not mad. I'm a Professor. I'm from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland. Your name has been on our list since you were born." He produced an envelope.

Name on the front, suspiciously specific location. Mental note, figure how to do that ASAP. I opened the envelope. School supply list. Yata yata. Then I realized something. Harry had money. I had money in my old life, software development is lucrative, but in this life, I was an orphan, a broke one. Hmm, mental note 2. Invest in all the stocks. Assuming I lived that long, since you know, bombs and world war II. Ehh, I was safe in the books.

"Sir, is there a scholarship fund for the poor?" I asked.

"Hogwarts does have a scholarship program for the less fortunate. You'll be given a stipend to purchase your books and supplies for the year." Dumbledore said with a nod.

"Sir, when can I go?"

"Term starts September 1st. You'll be allowed to purchase your supplies in August." I nodded eagerly.

Our conversation continued. I play the orphan who finally found a home, taking care to avert my eyes from Dumbledore whenever necessary. I asked a few questions, and channeled Hermione Granger.

He answered them. He did not catch my wardrobe on fire, or tell me off for being a thief. He left after an hour or so, and I told Mrs Cole the news when she checked on me after he left.

That night, I gathered up all the of Tom Riddle's trophies and threw them in the rubbish bin. Except for the money. And the chocolate.

The next few months were boring. I went to the boring school the orphanage sent their wards to. It was ridiculously easy. Even if I wasn't a twenty-something man in a eleven-year-old's body, Tom had been at the top of his class. I hate the awful gruel I wouldn't feed to an animal that passed as food. I practiced my wandless magic skills. I figured out how to get the levitation charm down to a tee and learned how to turn that into a banishing spell. I talked to snakes. I caught mice and taught myself to use the magic to stun them. I wanted to use my fellow orphan, but that was wrong. I puttered around London trying to figure out how make the summoning charm work to get myself some pocket money. After the school year ended, the orphans really didn't have anything to do. There wasn't a lot of supervision, so I decided to go off and search out Diagon Alley. I compelled a couple of adults to give me the contents of their wallet. A few pence here, a few pounds there. I had quite a bit of cash. Then I bought a ticket to the closest underground stop to where I thought Diagon was. I walked from the tube to a guesstimation of where Diagon might be. After wandering for a while, I stumbled upon the pub.

I entered the Leaky Cauldron. It looked almost exactly like the movie. The bartender was different, and so were the clientele, but it looked like the same run downhole that was in the movies.

"Excuse me sir. I was wondering if you could let me into the Diagon." I produced the list from Hogwarts.

"My parents sent me with money. I'm wondering if you could show me how to get into the alley."

"Oh, a Muggle-born. Certainly." The barkeeper walked to the wall and tapped the sequence to enter the alley. The bricks folded into the wall and I entered the alley.

The movies don't do the alley justice. It was amazing. For a self-proclaimed Potterhead, it was like coming home. A few hundred wizards walked about the alley, going about their daily business. Owls flew through the air, delivering letters and packages. Brightly lit storefronts promised potions and charms. It took my breath away.

Okay, first things first. Find the gobbies, change some pounds into galleons. Then go to Flourish and Blotts and find a few books on theory. As soon as I had my wand, it would be game on. There were quite a few charms I had my eye on learning. Gemino. The Fidelius, unless it was something invented by Dumbledore and Lily. The undetectable extension spells. As many combat spells as I can learn. I was about to live in a war zone. I wandered into Gringotts, and waited in line as a teller took care of other wizards ahead of me. I spotted a long-haired, platinum blond man ahead of me accompanied by a mini-me. Ah, this generation's Malfoy. Wizards did their business. I got to the teller, took out half my muggle money and exchanged it for galleons. Following a hunch I asked the goblin a question.

"Is there a blood test to see if I've inherited any vaults?"

The goblin sneered at me, like I was something foul he stepped in.

"What business of our is it who inherits what vaults. That's your ministry's problem. Not ours. We store your money. We don't make your laws, wizard." He said that last part like it was a profanity.

"Okay, well thank you." I said meekly. I was getting really good at playing the downtrodden orphan.

I left the bank, and went to Flourish and Blotts. I pursued the book section meant for textbooks. Recalling, Goblet, I wandered over to the 4th year section. Instead of the Standard Book of Spells series there was half a dozen different texts for the charm class. Well shoot. I browsed through them.

Flourish and Blotts provided a floating hand basket that followed you around held your prospective purchases. This also gave you a small floating tally in galleons.

Returns and Physical Remunerations seemed to cover various charms regarding physics. It seemed to be the proper spellbook. I leafed through the text, and found the accio charmed. Hmm. I wonder how wand movements translated to hand movements in regards to wandless magic.

I added that book to my basket. I found a book on trunk construction, that didn't tell me how to how perform an extension spell.

Sighing in frustration. I put the back on a shelf. I browsed for a bit more, picking up the Beginner's Guide to Wandless Wonders and Emergency Invocation for the Wandless Wizard, and The Many Mysteries of the Mental Arts.

I purchased my books, and then I left the store. I headed back to the orphanage, and spent the next couple weeks browsing my new books. I learned how to augment wand movements into hand motions. Wandless magic was interesting. It was good for imprecise spells. Banishing and Summoning. Lumos. Incendio. Those spells had easy to utilize energies. Spells that required precision. Enchantments, higher-end wards. Those needed a wand as a channel to filter magical energy into the precise framework require for the more delicate spells. So. No going rogue. I had to go to Hogwarts. Get a wand. Hopefully not become a power-mad dark lord with daddy issues.

Summer went quickly. Learning magic. Memorizing books. Tom had a eidetic memory. Dumbledore showed up mid-August and took me to Diagon again. Our first stop was Ollivander's.

We entered the shop. It was fall of 1938, and I was about to buy a wand. I was going to freaking Hogwarts. It was dusty, and dimly lit. Boxes of Wands filled the shelves, waiting for their owners. I wondered where the Holly one was. I wonder if I was destined to wield the Yew wand that would turn so many lives to ruin.

"Ah, Albus. Twelve inches, ebony and dragon heartstring. Temperamental, but powerful. Excellent for transfiguration. I trust it's served you well after all these years?"

Dumbledore smiled jovially.

"It has Garrick, thank you for asking."

"And who might this be?" Ollivander asked. Holy shit, creepy vibes galore. I did not like this dude.

"This is Thomas Riddle, he's one of the Muggle-borns, here to purchase a wand."

He looked at me. Waved his own wand once, and a flurry of tape measures and measuring devices.

"Tell me Mr. Riddle, what's your wand hand, the hand you write with?"

"I'm left-handed."

"Very well, if you would extend that arm please." Tape measures measured my waist size, my height. The length of both arms. It was like being smothered by tape measures. A nonverbal spell brought a wand out of its box. I grabbed the wand, gave it a flick, and a the glass showcase exploded. He repaired the showcase and returned the wand with a flick. We did this four more times.

"Hmm. Interesting. Albus, do you recall those feathers your familiar donated?"

"Yes, of course."

"I was going to owl you later, but I sold the holly wand yesterday."

Wait, what?

He summoned a box from the shelf and a white wand floated out of it.

"Try this one Mr. Riddle."

I took the wand from where it was hanging in the air. As I grasped it, what felt like a wave of right coursed through me. You know the feeling where you've been away from home from a long time, and you haven't seen your family in ages, and everyone is together. There's laughter, and talking. A million people catching up all at once, and the almost has an energy to it? The feeling that you could stay in this moment for a million years and you could never tire of it? When my hand curled around the yew wand, and the iridescent cascade of blue and white sparks flew? That was the feeling that coursed through my body. I knew in that moment, I was where I was supposed to be. That I had been given a mission. To erase the wrongs Tom Riddle would commit, and help those he would have killed.

"Interesting. Thirteen and half inches, yew. Phoenix feather core. You'll do great things Mr. Riddle, great and amazing things." Ollivander said. He had a knowing looking in his eye, and I almost wondered if he knew more about what was going on then he let on.

We grabbed my books, robes, and various school supplies and a second hand extended trunk with weight reduction spells. Dumbledore apparated me back to the Orphanage after a stop at Fortescue's.

September First, Mrs Cole drove me to King's Cross Station. I entered 9 and Three Quarters, loaded my stuff into the luggage department and settled into a compartment for a long ride to Hogwarts and my future.


	3. Chapter 3

The train ride was uneventful. I didn't make a lifelong friend, tell off a blond git, or really much of anything. A sandy haired boy joined me after awhile, and we sat in silence.

I was busy reading through the first year curriculum. Defense against the Dark Arts was interesting. I had no frame of reference for how an actual first year's defense class should go, as the books didn't really put a lot of focus on the material. Apparently, this year we would be covering household magical creatures and ways to defend and prevent them, along with basic spells and their counters.

According to the introduction of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection, our Hogwart's years would be divided up into two parts. For the first half of our career, up until fourth year, we would learn about magical creatures, how to defend against them and also basic spells like _Protego_, _Expelliarmus_ and _Stupefy_. In the second half of our schooling, after our OWL year we would delve into advanced combat and different types of dueling, along with more powerful creatures such as Inferi. It made some sense.

Lockhart and Lupin both taught their own variation on creatures. Moody was a Death Eater. Dumbledore knew a war was coming on and that gave a valid reason for them to learn about spells like the Unforgivables.

Charms was simple. Wand movements, proper enunciation and power output, and the spell would work.

Transfiguration was going to be the hard class. It was simply say a word, wave your wand, and turn your matchstick into a needle. No, you need to have a complete visualization of what you wanted to do. You needed to learn the molecular differences between wood and steel and include those in your transformation. It was physics and chemistry concepts rolled into one.

Potions was an odd mix between cooking and chemistry. If you wanted to make your own potions you had to know what reacted with what, in what quantities and the boiling point of certain objects. You had to be careful not to feed to much magic into the potion or else it wouldn't work. You also had to know what metals for cauldrons and stirring rods interacted with the mix. The lessons in the book were simple. If you followed the instructions then you would could almost guarantee the potions would come out. For the more advanced potions, it was akin to showing an extremely amateur cook who had trouble not burning water how to make a perfect Consommé.

We arrived at Hogsmeade Station, I had changed out of my orphan wear and into a set of black robes. We got out.

"First years! First years over here!" A older teenager in gold and black robes called out. So, that's who Hagrid would have replaced.

"No more to four to a boat, come on children." The boy said. Who the fuck was he calling a child? I was a grown ass- oh. Wait. Okay. We put our luggage on a pile.

Muttering under my breath I found a boat. I lost track of my compartment companion. We crossed the Black Lake. Holy Shit. Yet another thing that the movie doesn't do justice. The castle was aglow, every window was lit. The lake reflected it and the castle was like a ghostly after-image on the still surface. It was breathtaking. We entered the boathouse, followed a catacomb under the grounds and we emerged into the doors before the great hall. Dumbledore was waiting for us. I looked around at my classmates. Blond poncy looking git, this generation's Malfoy. Two boys who looked like miniature mountain trolls flanking him. Somethings never change. A prim looking girl. Another girl in a no nonsense bun who had glasses.

"The start of term feast will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.

The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."*

We trooped into the castle, single file. Listened to the Sorting Hat's song, and a stool was conjured. An Abbot went to Hufflepuff. A Bones followed them. Orion Black became a Slytherin. The girl with the her hair in a bun was McGonagall, and she went to Gryffindor. Of course. I should have seen that.

Then Dumbledore called out another name.

"Peter Pevensie!" Oh. oh no, well. Shit just got really interesting. Didn't it?

The sandy haired boy from my compartment sat down on the stool, the Hat sat on his head for maybe half a second before calling out Gryffindor. As if a Pevensie would go to any other house.

"Tom Riddle!" Dumbledore called out. I took a seat on the stool, and the hat was placed on my head.

"_My, my, a time traveler. I haven't sorted one of these and years. Every since that insane girl with the watch. What a nut. Hmm. A universe traveler as well. Apparently I'm in a work of fiction. This is certainly news to me. So, let's see what house to sort you into. Hmm, brains to spare. You've got a sneaky streak in you. You're hardworking, but not very loyal."_

"_I'm loyal to my cat!"_ I thought back.

"_To humans, you manchild."_

"_Shush. Just put me in Gryffindor."_

"_Bravery is not your strongest quality. You are at least daring. You've got nerve." _Moving cross-country for a job would count as daring, I guess.

"_I've also got a plot coupon practically smacking me in the face. Gryffindor, you self aware headpiece."_

"_I could melt your brain."_

"_And I could catch you on fire."_

"_Looks like its_ Gryffindor!" The hat said.

"_Now fuck off. Time travelers. Crazy. The lot of them." _The hat muttered before being removed from my head. My robes turned to ones that were Gryffindor themed, and I took a spot next to Peter and a Pettigrew.

Augusta Rosier, the prim looking girl, went to Gryffindor. I wondered if that was Neville's grandma. The sorting hat finished it's bit. We had the feast. After months of gruel and junk food, the feast was delicious. There were like six different kinds of meat. Roast vegetables. Soup. Everything and anything a british kid could want. After the feast we were escorted upstairs to our common room and our dorms. I changed out of my robes into my under things, crawled into my new bed, and went to sleep.

*Taken from The Sorcerer's Stone. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.


	4. Chapter 4

I sat at the Gryffindor table. The Great Hall was mostly empty this early. The ceiling of the Great Hall was basically a real time display of the weather outside of the castle. The stars outside had yet to be replaced by a sunrise, although it was tinged with the orange that meant it was close to dawn. I had been an early riser by habit, and being punted across space and time hadn't changed that. I needed to work out a plan. When I first arrived in this universe, I thought it was generic harry potter. My plan was to study my ass off, get great OWLS and NEWTS, and then vanish into the muggle world, using magic to live a life of luxury, and maybe become a silicon valley billionaire, because why not?

With the revelation of last night's sorting, some of those plans changed. I was going to make friends with Peter Pevensie, and hopefully get taken along to Narnia. Hopefully, if Aslan was a god, He could send me home. Or maybe He was the one that dropped me here in the first place. I had to get to Narnia. That much was sure. I'd also bet my last galleon that Peter was the one who got the holly wand.

The Pevensies didn't go to Kirke's house until 1940ish, it was during the Blitz, I knew that much. That gave me a year or two to figure that out. I also knew that I needed to stockpile stuff for the trip. One of those cool wizarding tents, and consumables. The magical equivalent to Hand Warmers. A bucket of water for the wicked witch of the north. A broom or five. This meant that my plan for a portable hole went to the top of the list, as did my plan to raid the library and the room of requirement. I needed to learn that extension spell yesterday, along with those neat little shield spells that created a dome around Hogwarts in _Hallows_. I wondered if I could fit the Basilisk into an undetectable extensioned backpack or suitcase, or wallet. Newt did, or will do it, my memory was fuzzy on Fantastic Beasts. I'm almost positive that movie took place in the 20s, so that was already done, and Professor Dumbledore was currently the Transfiguration Teacher, Professor Merrythought was the current Defense instructor.

Reflecting back on the the Narnian book series, it had been years since I last read it, I also knew that the Pevensies died at some point in the Last Battle, due to a train wreck. I'm wondered if I could save them. I had a few years before that happened though, so I pushed it to the back of my mind. I sipped my coffee, surprisingly the elves brewed a great cup of joe.

There were other things I had to worry about as well. My orphanage, for all intents and purposes, my home, was going to be in the middle of one of the worst air raids in human history. The whole world was going to be plunged into the middle of a war. Ugh. Some many things to do, and I was already under a deadline. Speaking of deadlines, I need a time turner. Yesterday.

With those million thoughts running through my head, I looked at my schedule. Today was a saturday, so I wouldn't have classes until the fourth. It was the normal first year classes, I noted idly I would have fridays free. Then it hit me. Holy shit. It happened yesterday. World War II started freaking yesterday. I was floored by that brief realization. I knew that tomorrow Britain and France would declare war on Nazi germany. I shook off that terrifying realization. Okay. I had the weekend free. First things first. The library!

I wandered the halls for about an hour, after getting lost, and having that stupid staircase somehow take me downstairs even though I was blatantly going _up_, a friendly ghost pointed the way there. I added making my own version of the Marauder's map to my quickly growing list.

I arrived in the library. Of course, due to the early hour, it was open, but empty.

A librarian was sitting at the desk. She was a stern looking young woman in her early twenties. Holy shit, Madam Pince was a looker.

I gave her a smile, and a wave.

"Good Morning, I was wondering if there was a card catalog."

She looked up, an inquisitive look in her eye.

"You're a muggleborn I take it?"

"Yes ma'am." I said.

She pointed to a wood paneled file cabinet off to the side of the desk.

"Tap your wand to that, speak or think the book you're looking for, and if you bring the card to me I can check the book out for you. Or you can get it yourself. Just be mindful and careful with my books."

I went over to the cabinet, and tapped it, and thought about the undetectable extension spell. A card floated out of the cabinet, gave me a location in the charms section and off I went.

Fifteen minutes later I had proper wand movements for the extension spell sketched out on a piece of parchment. Quills are a pain in the ass to use, by the way. Now I needed a bag to practice with. Next stop, room of requirement!

I carefully placed the book back where I found it, left the Library, and took off for the seventh floor corridor. After finding the room I walked back and forth three times, all the while thinking,

"_I need a place and materials to learn the extension spell."_

A door opened, there was a study table with a few books on spatial expansion spells in general, and a pile of various bags, trunks, and purses.

The first three I tried, I kind of overpowered it. One of the purses had a feather lining for some ungodly reason. I learned the vanishing spell before I learned the expansion spell. On my fifth try, the leather backpack I was waving my wand over glowed blue. I experiment by stuffing my arm into the bag. Then my head. I'm glad the bag was on its side, because I kind of crawled into it.

Look, this wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I needed to know how well this thing worked. It's all perfectly scientific.

Hmm, next step. I crawled out of my backpack, and thought about a book for shrinking and unshrinking spells. Because my next logical step is to carry everything. All the time. Always.

But first. I quickly told the room that I wanted a pile of galleons the size of me. A swish and a flick, and the pile of galleons was in my physics defying backpack. Which now weighed as much as I did. Fuckkk mee.

I asked the book for a how to on feather-light charms. It provided. I think I might be in love with a room. I shrunk my new found dragon's horde and put it in my pocket. Thoroughly exhausted from my early morning magic usage, I went back to gryffindor tower and fell asleep until noon.

When I woke up, I was starving, and lunch was being served in the Great Hall. My dorm was empty. I backtracked my steps to the Great Hall. The gryffindor table, and the great hall, was about a quarter of the way full. It seemed as though the older students were out and about, as it didn't look like there was hardly anyone about third or fourth year sitting around.

I noticed Peter sitting by himself, a piece of parchment and an ink bottle out. A quill was in his hand. I decided to sit across from him. I sat down, grabbed a sandwich and my transfiguration text and began to study.

After a few minutes, I had noticed he was finished with his letter and had taken out his own textbook, and had began to study.

"You're Peter, right?" I asked. He looked up from his text.

"Yes. Tom, right?" He said, and I nodded.

"Who were you writing?"

"My brother and sisters." I nodded, and went back to studying.

"Do you have any siblings?" He asks. A universe ago I would have answered yes, and pulled out my phone to show pictures of my nieces and nephews. But Tom Riddle doesn't have siblings, doesn't even have a mother or a father.

"I'm an orphan." I say, and sip my cooling cup of tea.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He replies, unsure what to do with this information.

"It's fine. I've always been." He nods, and goes back to his book.

"Say, have you ever played chess?" I ask, searching a change of subject. He nods.

"Well, I hear wizards have a type of chess where the pieces move themselves, and they talk to you. I'm sure the common room might have one. Wanna go back there and try to find a set?" I had seen a shelf in there last night filled with various wizarding games and books.

"Sure."

We finished eating, and put our books back in our respective bags. Then we made to leave the great hall. As we were exiting, we nearly ran into two other boys. One of them had black hair and grey-blue eyes, Orion Black. He looked like a smaller version of Sirius Black, minus the tattoos and insanity. The other. The other was a Malfoy.

"Watch where you're going mudblood." Orion said.

"What did you call me?" Peter asked.

"Mudblood." The Malfoy said, as if talking to someone particularly slow.

"A dirty muggle that thinks that it's risen above it's station because it has a wand." In that moment, I see a flash of the warrior my friend will become, and it was, frankly terrifying. This would one day be the man that would face giants with his brother. Would fight a wolf to save his sister. Would ride a unicorn into battle with a sword in his hand, and a prayer to the Lion on his lips. I felt a thrill go down my spine, and something else, and promptly ended _that_ train of thought.

"Peter, ignore him." I said, grabbing my new friend gently by the shoulder.

Malfoy gave me a look, taking in my second hand robes, and tattered knapsack.

"Come on, Black. Leave the mudbloods alone, that one already looks like it's been in a scrape. Wouldn't want our images tarnished by getting into a fight with this lot." You're eleven. Why are you talking like that. Stop talking like that.

"God forbid you'd lose to a mudblood," I said, and immediately regretted my words.

Malfoy drew his wand.

"I'd say you learn who your betters are, Riddle." He sneered.

"You can learn the same lesson, ponce." I gave my best imitation of the haughty arrogance that Malfoy seemed to exude, my own wand in my hand. I may not know many spells, but I'm pretty sure my stupefy would lay him out.

"You dare, filth?"

"I do." I fucking hated bigots, and used a little trick Tom had picked up in the orphanage. My eyes took on a slight glow, not really apparent, just a shimmer that gave them a slightly malicious look about them. Excellent for intimidation, especially little shits who think they're better than everyone because of the silver spoons that had been removed from their mouths as a baby and permanently lodged in their ass since.

"Malfoy, let's take our leave." Black said, tugging on his friend's arm.

They shoot us dirty looks and enter the Great Hall. We return to our common room without incident. The rest of the weekend passes uneventfully.

Monday morning, after breakfast, we're sent off to the potions classroom. We shared the class with the Slytherins. Apparently, this had been done this way for years. Despite it being in the dungeon, it wasn't the gloomy scene in the books. The classroom was lit by some sort of light charm in the ceiling. Peter and I took a seat at one of the work tables.

Slughorn is an interesting teacher. He gave a small lecture on the importance of the boil cure potion, made the instructions appear on the blackboard, and then proceeded to try and socialize with my classmates.

I had already read Jigger's book cover to cover, along with _Advanced Potion Making._ Tom had an eidetic memory, and I put it to use. Peter and I had the second best potion in the class. Next to Malfoy and Black. The class was interesting, but I really didn't get the appeal. Like, brew fame, bottle glory, and all that, but know of that was ever shown. I wanted to like Potions. I loved cooking. But this, mindlessly grinding porcupine quills. Dissecting slugs. No thanks. We decant our boil cure, cleaned up our area, and moved to the next class.

Our next class was Herbology. Professor Beery was the current head of Ravenclaw, and an amazing teacher. Our first class covered the syllabus for the year, and what we would cover through all seven years if we chose to continue the class after our OWL Year.

Herbology was kind of badass. There were all sorts of plans that were quite terrifying.

Even the first year plants, like devil's snare, would be deadly given the right setting. I aimed then and there to learn everything I could about this field.

Herbology flew by, and soon it was time for lunch.

Peter and I discussed our classes over a lunch of soup and sandwiches. We had made a new friend in Herbology, Reginald Longbottom. He had been sorted into Gryffindor, and was extremely outgoing.

"Yeah, I've been on the books for Hogwarts for Ages, my family's one of the 28, y'know?" We didn't know Reg.

"My brother, Algie is going to be here next year. He's a bit of a git. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a claw or a snake."

"Doesn't your family sort into one house?" I asked.

"Oh no. We're not the Weasley's or the Malfoy's. We've got family in all the houses, my older sister was in Hufflepuff. She's graduated now. Went to an upscale Uni in the States."

"We have Universities?" I asked. That was news to me.

"Of course we do!" He said.

"She went to one in New York. That school's bloody weird. Some sort of time magic makes the seasons all funny. She's learning all about wandless magic. Then there's that scary one in Maine, those blokes are crazy. Of course, there's also Oxford and Cambridge here." He turned to Peter.

"What about you Pete, where is your family from?"

"Finchley. My mum doesn't work, but my dad's in the service." He said after finishing a bite of his sandwich.

"Oh, my uncle's in the army. Right worried about Grindelwald he is."

"Who?" Peter asked.

"Oh, this scary dark lord that's been running around the continent. We don't have to worry about him. Not with the likes of Dumbledore and Minister Moon here. Grindelwalds too scared."

I wished he was right. Lunch went by, and we talked about quidditch. I'm not sure I wanted to play that game. But until I figured out how to duplicate that flight spell, or learned to apparate, I wanted a way to fly. Our first lesson wouldn't be until Thursday.

We had a brief break after lunch, and I was quickly wrote a rough draft of my essay on the properties of porcupine quills.

After our break, we had Charms class with Ravenclaw. We would finally start learning magic!

We entered the class room. Flitwick was seated on top of his desk, and the room separated into two different sections, half of the room in Ravenclaw blue, the other half Gryffindor red.

"Welcome to Charms. In the next seven years you will learn how to become invisible, light your way in the dark. A master of charms will never be without a way to light a fire. Can conjure water without a thought. This is the most diverse field of magic in existence. Charms is the cornerstone for Defense Against the Dark Arts, the stasis and shield spells for particular potions, and the reversal for nasty Transfigurations. Now, can anyone tell me a charm used in another field of magic?"

A ravenclaw raised her hand.

"The protego charm."

"Good job Miss Selwyn! Five points of Ravenclaw." Not to be out done, I raised my own hand.

"Mr. Riddle?"

"The Patronus Charm, for Dementors."

"Excellent, five points to Ravenclaw. Now, for our first class, we'll be learning the easiest charm, but one of the most useful, the wandlighting charm, and it's counterspell, the wand extinguishing charm."

He demonstrated the incantation, an upside down V, with his wand, and _Nox_, a regular V swiped in the air backward.

I had already learned this through my own studying of the books.

"Lumos!" I said, the tip of my wand glowed bright, and I quickly countered the spell, I gained another ten points for my house.

Soon, the whole class was able to light their wands and extinguish them. This took nearly the whole period.

"Good job everyone. For homework I want twelve inches on The Lumos charm, and it's relation to the Kenaz rune. You'll find the information you need in one of your charms texts. I expect this essay by Wednesday. I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning. Off you tot!"

Our next class was Transfiguration, which, despite Dumbledore being the teacher, was dry. We had a lot of theory to cover before learning our first spells in that class.

Transfiguration was our last class of the day and we went to Dinner. After playing a small round robin of chess with Reg and Peter, I lost both games, I edited my rough draft of my Potion's essay, placed that in my Potion's text, and then got to work on my Charm's homework.

The next morning Flitwick was waiting for us in Charms and he set us to work writing or finishing the essay.

I raised my hand.

"Yes Mr. Riddle?"

"Professor, I was just wondering, why couldn't we use a rune instead of a spell?"

"Excellent question Mr. Riddle, and you'll cover this in runes if you choose that class in your third year, but Runes are in predictable. Wizardkind has learned that just using a rune can have some unpredictable effects due to their variable meanings. I can provide you more research if you'd like to learn more?"

I nodded.

"See me after class." He said. At the hour mark, I finished my essay and handed it in. Surprised that I'd turned in my essay, he looked over it.

"You've only worked on this for half the class, how are you done already?" He asked.

"Oh, I completed the essay last night. I just had to correct the spelling and fix the sentence structure.

"A Gryffindor with a Ravenclaw's study ethic." He said with a laugh.

"Maybe the Hat sorted you wrong," He said with a laugh and I let out a nervous chuckle. He gave me a small primer on the differences between rune magic and wand magic.

"Normally that's a book you don't receive until the third year, but you'll put it to good use, I think. Let me know if you have any questions about the material."

I went back to my desk and began devouring the thin book. It was only a hundred some odd pages, but it was extremely interesting. The class was dismissed and we went to our first Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Professor Merrythought was a severe looking, stern woman who booked no disobedience or nonsense. She knew her shit, and she quickly started in on a rapid fire lecture about Doxies.

Our next two classes were Herbology, and Astronomy. Dinner followed.

Wednesday had us at the Charms Class where we focused on Lumos Solem, a variation on the wandlighter. After, we had History of Magic. I vowed to figure out how to exorcise a spirit. Binns was the most boring teacher I had ever suffered through. That class quickly turned into a period of self study.

Thursday was our first flying lesson. It went okay. Okay, so I kind of smacked myself in the head with the broom, twice. And fell. But, I was learning how to fly a broom, so that was good.

Friday was free except for our Astronomy practical, and I spent the weekend exploring the castle with Peter and Reginald, and using the Room of Requirement for my own personal library and practice room.

We settled into a routine, and soon the Christmas Holidays were upon us.


	5. Chapter 5

Teacher's Lounge, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

December 1939.

As always, before they sent the students home for the Winter, and Yule, or Christmas depending on if they were a muggleborn, a pureblood, or of mixed lineage, the teachers sat down and discussed their various students. Talent scouting started early at Hogwarts. It was one of the most premiere schools of grade level magic in the world. Places like Miskatonic, Brakebills, and Magical Oxford would begin courting students that would matriculate Hogwarts in the spring of the Student's Fifth Year. Even now, with the War going on, they would still begin their recruitment efforts. These, along with the Ministry of the Magic, of course.

The most talked about student however, wasn't a fifth year. It was Tom Riddle. The young student was top of his year, and Filius had begun instructing him in Runes on the sly, much to the ire of Bathsheda Babbling, their resident Rune Master. There was talk about moving him up a year.

There were detractors of course. Among them was Horace Slughorn.

"While his grades are excellent, his practicum is lacking. That, and he's made no shortage of enemies among his year group." Albus rolled his eyes internally. Horace, was of course, speaking of the rivalry that had quickly developed between Riddle and the Misters Black and Malfoy. Horace had created a little club when he had joined the school staff a few years ago. He was quickly becoming the most well connected teacher at Hogwarts. There were rumors that he'd try for headmaster in a few years, once Armando had retired. Aside from those two, and the little clique the two scions were forming in Slytherin, Tom was friendly with almost everyone at the school.

"It's a schoolyard rivalry, nothing more," Filius said.

"Hexes have been exchanged! In the classroom, mind you. Not to mention that incident with the cauldron. I had to assign detention for him and that muggleborn he hangs around with." Horace barked back. He was of course, referring to Peter Pevensie. Tom and Peter had quickly hit it off, they and Rigel Longbottom were thick as thieves. Along with a brilliant young witch named Minerva that Albus had earmarked as excellent in Transfiguration. The girl was a natural.

"There's never been any sort of tomfoolery in my classroom," Galena replied. Albus bit back a snort at the pun.

"Of course not Galena, they'd be afraid you'd hex them into oblivion."

"My job, if I need to remind you, Horace, is to teach them avoid being just that." She bit back.

"What may I ask, caused the altercation?" Albus asked. He noticed that Armando had yet to intervene, studiously ignoring the almost shouting match in favor of reading his issue of the Prophet. Albus was the Assistant Headmaster, but Armando should have stopped his staff from arguing.

"Just a bit of naming calling, nothing serious really."

"A bit of name calling?" Galena said. She was the Head of Gryffindor House.

"Mr. Malfoy called Riddle and Pevensie dirt eating mudbloods. Mr. Riddle retaliated by shouting back. After asperaging Mr. Riddle's parents, or lack thereof, Mr. Riddle used a tickling hex on Mr. Malfoy. Albus, given the material Mr. Riddle has read since he returned, he is capable of much more severe harm."

This caused Albus some degree of worry. When he had first met Tom at Wool's the matron of the orphanage had told him that Tom was a menace to the other residents. Upon meeting him, and lightly probing the boy with legilimency, he had picked up notes of confusion, and fear. But not any sort of malice. He had written the claims off as the accidental magic of a scared young boy.

"What sort of material?" He asked.

"As you know, Irma forwards me the records of any of my students checking books out of the library, just in case they check out something beyond their grade level, or a tome of spells that could cause themselves harm. You know the restricted section has most of the powerful books, but there are quite a few times that are available for consumption that go hand in hand with our curriculum as necessary augments to the text. Mr. Riddle has checked out almost every book at the second and third, and fourth level in the core subjects, and has read them."

"Ah yes, and fourth is when we begin teaching dueling and the more dangerous hexes we teach as part of your course." Worries assuaged, Albus motioned for her to continue.

"Well, after Mr. Riddle hit Mr. Malfoy with a spell, which was stopped by a protego from Mr. Black, Mr. Pevensie decided to join the fracas. He punched Mr. Black in the nose."

"No one was in the right during that, I'll agree." Albus said, and Horace nodded triumphantly.

"However, Horace, Mr. Malfoy should have served a detention for the name calling. That sort of behavior and those slurs should not be tolerated here. You know this."

"It's just a few words, Albus."

"Imperio is just a word. The Killing curse is four syllables. We are at war because words sparked actions that are reprehensible. Hogwarts is a place of learning, not bigotry. You'll learn to correct your students or you'll be corrected by me. Are we understood?"

"Albus, The Malfoys and Blacks are extremely well connected, and I would hate to get on the wrong side of them. Let boys be boys."

"Horace, you're extremely well employed, and you would hate to get on the wrong side of _me._ Control your students."

The Potion's Master looked cowed. The rest of the meeting continued uneventfully.


	6. Chapter 6

I was going to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas break, but my plans had changed when I remember the fact that I had a extended backpack filled with galleons. I needed to get those off the grounds and hopefully into my own vault at Gringotts. With a little luck, I could convince them to start a muggle bank account in my name, and put a quarter of the money I had in Coca Cola, why? Because I knew fuck all about the World War II stock market, but Coke has been around for years.

December 20th, I boarded the train alongside Peter, Rigel, and Minerva. We quickly chose a compartment.

"What's everyone's plans for the hols?" I asked. Peter and Rigel were in the middle of a game of wizard's chess. Minerva was reading the third year text for transfiguration.

"Just christmas with the family. My dad's not going to be home, but my siblings are home from school." Peter said.

"My parents are taking me to Brazil. Castelobruxo is holding a herbology conference, Dad is presenting a seminar about raising tropical magical plants in England." Regi said, and put Peter into check.

"Me mum and da are going to have the whole family over for the hols, including my cousins from America. I can't wait." Minerva said, one hand was on the book, the other held her wand. She was tracing it in an incantation without intoning the spell or putting power into it. I knew she had already mastered the first year's curriculum. We had formed a study group of sorts. I excelled in defense against the dark arts, and charms. She helped us with transfiguration. Peter was adept brewer, and Rigel helped us with Herbology. We all suffered through history of magic together. Although, Minerva was the only one who paid attention in the class instead of using it for self study or napping.

"Rig, is your sister coming home?"

"No, Brakebills runs oddly. She'll be home in a month or two for their version of Christmas. Mother says that she'll let me floo home on the weekends when she's home." He said, and I nodded. We settled into into a peaceful silence. I used a few of my galleons to buy Peter and I snacks from the trolley. Minerva and Rigel had pocket money of their own.

We departed the train, and Mrs. Cole was there waiting for me in her own vehicle. Gas rationing would be a thing soon.

We went to the Orphanage, and bright and early, I set out for Diagon.

I went into Gringotts, waited in line, which was _hell_ thanks to all the idiots out for last minute shopping. I walked up to the goblin.

"How may I help you, wizard?" The goblin sneered. Resist urge not to strangle.

"I need to set up a vault."

"Are you of age?" He asked with a grin that problem meant I want to eat you, in gobbledygook.

"I've got a hundred galleons that says I am." It was a pittance compared to what I had in my knapsack.

"Follow me," He said, placing a closed placard on his desk and led me to an office.

"How did you earn this money? Is it of ill-gain?"

"I found it through legal means, where I found it is on no matter."

"Gringotts will, of course want a finder's fee. Twenty percent will be efficient."

"I'm young, not stupid. Five."

"Eighteen."

"Seven."

"Thirteen."

"Ten, and not a knut more."

"You drive a harsh bargain for a wizard."

"You're an easy negotiator for a goblin." He glared at me, tapped the desk, and a stack of parchment appeared. I filled out the forms, and then stopped when it got to the amount. I took the knapsack out of my pocket, and tapped it, turning it to full size.

"I believe that there's roughly ten thousand galleons, less your hundred, and the ten percent." I said with a wolfish grin, and there was a shit ton more in the Room. I had requested all the galleons the room had, and the pile was mind boggling large. I didn't want to crash the wizarding economy, and the bag apparently had a limit to what could fit in it. I'd make withdrawals over the years into my vault, and when I was Seventeen, I'd be a very wealthy wizard.

The goblin took me an empty vault, Vault 802. I emptied my knapsack, and the goblin touched a control crystal on the wall. A glowing number appeared above the stack of gold, and there were almost ten thousand galleons there. The goblin touched another crystal, and a chunk of the galleons vanished. I counted out a hundred galleons with a quick spell, and they moved over to the goblin, who put them in a pouch on his belt. I withdrew four hundred of my own, bought a galleon's pouch, and we left the vaults via cart coaster, and arrived back in the lobby. We went back to his office.

"Now, I was wondering if I could open a muggle bank account?"

"Your bribery has worked to an extent, but unfortunately, you must be eighteen to open one of those. Try again in a few years little wizard." Well, shoot. I was given a shiny gold key and sent on my way. After I got about a hundred pounds in muggle money.

Then I went shopping. I grabbed myself a bottomless, shrinkable backpack that wasn't homebrewed. This one had a special locking charm, the better for other orphans not to steal my possessions. The better for copying the spells on it. A self inking, self correcting quil dictaquil, also for reverse engineering. I wanted my Pilots back, dammit, and these would be enchanted. Unfortunately, ballpoints hadn't been invented yet. I was still stuck with fountain pens for the time being, but they were still smoother to write with then fuckin quills. I bought my friends each a very nice eagle feather quill. I bought a book entitled _Finding the Animal Inside: A Beginner's Guide to Animagery _for Minerva_._ I bought myself a copy too, but while I had the basics through third year down, Transfiguration was nowheres near my speciality. It would be nice to have a second form.

I bought Regi a book on Herbology. Peter was going to get a book on wandless potions, and a brewing kit that came with the book. I went to the Diagon Branch of Honeydukes, and bought them a each gift basket. I bought each of Peter's siblings a couple of chocolate frogs. I traipsed into Muggle London, and bought the orphans a bunch of chocolate. Then I stopped by the Owl Post Office to deliver the packages.

I ended my outing with a trip to Madam Malkin's. These weren't the classy acromantula silk robes that the purebloods favored, but they were a sight better than the second or third hand robes I had gotten from the scholarship.

I spent the remaining days until christmas browsing the rudimentary book on wandless magic that I had bought earlier in the year. In was one of those books that has high in theory, and less in practicalities. I resolved to ask the room for a better book as soon as I got back to Hogwarts.

Christmas morning dawned cold and snowy. The orphanage had also been cold in the winter, but this was a whole other level of chill. I gave the chocolate to the few friends I had made in the previous year. Tom had a reputation before I had body snatched him, and I was doing my best to repair that reputation. I received a gift of muggle comics from Peter, a wand holster from Reg, and a book that supplemented second year's transfiguration course from Minerva.

The days from Christmas to New Years passed uneventfully. I filled them with plotting. When I went back to Hogwarts, I was going to get a new pet. Or get eaten. Time would tell.


	7. Chapter 7

Before returning to Hogwarts, I'd been struck by inspiration. I struck out to muggle London and bought myself a portable typewriter. I also bought a couple more of the fancy quills I had gotten from Diagon. When I got back to hogwarts, I'd upgrade the fountain pens I had got. I'd also enchant the typewriter and hope the misuse of magic office wouldn't get on my ass about it. The dictaquill and self correcting spells worked off of runes etched into the quill, along with spells. So I'd need to figure that out first. But when I was done, I'd hopefully have the beginnings of a magical computer. At least the word processing part. I was thinking about using some form of the protean charm to connect two typewriters, but first I wanted to get one working on it's own.

I boarded the train, greeted my friends, and settled for in for the ride back to Hogwarts. After the welcoming back feast, we went up to our rooms and settled in. I got lucky once again. We had returned to Hogwarts on January 5th, a friday. I had two days to explore. Friday night I stayed up well past midnight. I had figured out the Prefect's schedule, and they usually went to bed around that time. I snuck out of the tower. The fat lady was absent from her portrait, and went down to the second floor. I quickly found the girl's bathroom.

I hissed to a sink, and the door to the chamber opened. I lit my wand, and contemplated things for a second. Praying to the fanon gods, I hissed.

"_Stairs."_ Thankfully, the fanon gods were mercifully and a long staircase appeared instead of a slide.

I went down the staircase. The chamber was ugly, gloomy, dust, and smelled like shit. Literal shit. It was the sewer of the school after all. It had yet to flood thank goodness.

I walked past the pillars, and noticed that there were sconces in the walls for lights. There, at the end of the chamber was the statue of Slytherin. It was huge. Easily twenty feet tall.

Here goes nothing. I really should have brought a rooster.

"_Speak to me Salazar, greatest of the Hogwarts four!" _I hiss yelled, and just my eyes. I felt something tug at my magic, as if judging me. The statue rumbled and groaned. I kept my eyes closed for a few moments.

Then something spoke.

"Well, what do you want?" It sounded almost grumpy.

"I'm the Heir of Slytherin." I said.

"I'm a basilisk. Are we going to keep stating facts all day, or may I return to my slumber? Unless there's a reason why I've been called. Is the school threatened? Why are your eyes shut, my heir?"

"So I don't die?" I answered half heartedly.

"Has no one taught you anything? I'm in perfect control of my gaze. Honestly, what have been descendants been teaching themselves?" The snake muttered.

I cracked open one eye. The basilisk was freaking huge. It also looked half asleep.

"I'm not sure, you see I'm an orphan. I didn't know my parents."

"Well, obviously you're of my lineage. Or else I'd have eaten you. The magic of the Chamber tests that."

His, and you could tell the snake was a boy from it's tone, word choice was beginning to bug me.

"What do you mean of my lineage? You're not human."

"Oh, dear me, where _are_ my manners." The basilisk rippled and shifted, magic twisted around him. There was a surge of power, and standing before my, clad in green and silver, was a tall imposing man in his mid to late fifties.  
"I'm Salazar Slytherin." He said, extending a hand, "Pleased to meet you."

That was when the idiocy of the night and the long train ride finally caught up with me.

"Tom, Tom Riddle. Holy fucking shit." I said, and I'm pretty sure I fainted.


	8. Chapter 8

I woke up with a start. I'd been dreaming. I had to be. I went to the Chamber and found out that Salazar fucking Slytherin was animagus. Then I looked around the room I was in. It was made of stone. There were shelves along one wall that held books. Another held vials upon vials of white glowing material that I was almost positive were Pensieve memories. A desk with a quill and parchment were in another corner. The room was warm. It felt like summer. Where the bloody hell was I? Oh god, that's the most British thing I've ever thought. I must be going native.

"Ah good, you're awake." A man's voice said and walked into the room.

Nope. Not a dream.

"You're Salazar Slytherin!" I practically yelled.

"You have quite the penchant for pointing out the obvious." He said.

"But you! Snake! Basilisk!"

"Me! Wizard! Animagus!" He said,

"Is that how everyone talks these days?" He muttered.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose.

"How long was I out?"

"Perhaps an hour, maybe more. Maybe less."

I reached for my wand and invoked the tempus spell. Okay, it was only 2. I had a stock of pepper-up potion in my room. I wouldn't be a complete zombie tomorrow.

"How are you the basilisk? Every legend I've read about it says that it was your creature that you left behind to kill muggle-born." I needed logical answers, or else I was going to go insane.

"That's preposterous. I only wanted to keep the muggleborn out of Hogwarts to save us, and them. The witch trials killed so many of our kind, that we needed better protections."

"That makes sense, but what doesn't make sense, is why are you a basilisk?"

"Is animagery no longer taught?"

"It is, but only for the advanced classes. Everything I've read about that branch of magic suggests that it isn't possible to become a mythological creature. The power expenditure basically guarantees becoming an instant niffin." Well, it didn't, but I could read between the lines of being wary of wandless spell usage in a universe where Brakebills existed.

"Not for a normal wanded mage no. Tell me young wizard, what have they told you about us four?"

"Four teachers, four houses. The Hufflepuffs, the Hard Workers. The Gryffindors, the courageous. The Ravenclaws, the wise. The Slytherin, the cunning."

"That's true to an extent. We did create this school, and we worked together for a time. But that is where I'm afraid the history starts to bleed into myth. Helena and Godric. Helga and I. We were married to the other. Each of our houses, they have their own creatures. You know of Hufflepuffs?"

"A badger?"

"Yes, a badger. Hardworking. Industrious, and utterly capable of savagery unlike anything else when angered or pushed into a corner. I'm afraid I angered a badger. You see, I loved Helga dearly, but I had a dalliance if you will. I was unfaithful to her. In return, she cursed me with an incorporate bond."

"What?"

"Do you not know what an incorporate bond is?"

"I'm aware of what one of those is. It's an unbreakable spell meant as a type of prison sentence. They're impossible to break." As soon as I had heard a couple of fifth years talking about Brakebills, and realized it was part of the universe I'd been thrown into, I'd wracked my brains for everything I knew about the books and movies.

"No matter. She cursed me with the incorporate bond, and immediately regretted it."

"What were the conditions of the bond? What was the bond's area?"

"Her exact wording was to never allow me to walk off the school grounds again. She cursed me, and I accepted it. I'd been in the wrong. The four of us created a spell, a variant on the animagus ritual. In case our arithmancy was off, or we couldn't beat the conditions of the spell, we chose a creature that exemplified my nature and abilities and could be used as a protection for the school. The ritual was a success, mostly. The curse said I could never walk off the school grounds. It never said I couldn't slither. It had the side effect of making me immortal. The next decade or two wasn't kind to us. There was that debacle with Helena and my son from my first marriage. Rowena killed herself in grief. Then my Helga died. Godrick and I were soon the last two of the founders. Our proteges took over the school. Godrick vanished, and I was the last. My heirs visited me at first. But they had children and grew old, and I became lonely. It's only recently that I've returned to Hogwarts. I've spent years roaming the world until recently. There are these nasty muggle metal things that attacked me underwater around the Nord sea. I crushed them and escaped. I came back here a few months ago, and decided to hibernate for a bit before going back to my journals."

"How do you eat enough to support your metabolism? How do you get to the ocean?"

"The oceans are deep and the fish are plentiful. Black Lake has a channel that leads to the ocean."

"Wait? Journals?"

"Yes, I keep journals. For the first century, it was parchment. I've since moved to Pensieve memories that are labeled along with an index. It keeps the memories from driving me insane. I have a house elf bring me the vials."

"The house elves know about you?"

"Of course they do. The elves are primarily loyal to Hogwarts, for all intents and purposes, I'm the owner of this school. They keep the secrets of their master. So, tell me, child, when are you from?"

"I'm from London."

"Not where, when."

"What?"

"You look eleven or twelve. You didn't even question my use of the term dalliance. Which suggests a higher level of knowledge about intimacy or entendre then most children could fathom. You talk about incorporate bonds knowingly. You speak like an adult. You have the demeanor of one. You're obviously a time traveler. It wouldn't be the first time I had to put up with temporal meddling. There was that dreadful girl with the stopwatch in the early fifteenth century that wouldn't shut up. I almost killed her more than once. Then there was that blond girl, the idiot niffin. I almost shoved her in a box. That was a fun week."

Well, shoot.

"I'm from the early twenty-first century."

"Oh, and what caused you to come back to, what year is it?"

"1940."

"1940."

I couldn't tell him I was from a separate universe.

"A magical accident."

"Hmm." He shrugged

noncommittedly, and performed his own version of the Tempus spell.

"Well, it is getting late. I'll let you return to your room. Have a nice night Tom. I'm going to retire."

"I will. This conversation has been enlightening." I said and offered my hand out. He shook it and I turned to leave.

"Oh, and Tom?"

I turned back.

Salazar smirked at me.

"Perhaps next time you'll tell me why the chamber's wards inform me you absolutely wreak of being touched by a god."


	9. Chapter 9

It had been two weeks since I all but fled from the chamber. Saturday I had slept in. Sunday I had used the room as a target range for practicing dueling. I had most of the spells taught at hogwarts learned in that department. I knew confringo, both bombarda variants, and reducto, along with half a dozen other spells meant to injure my opponents. There were a few things on my list. I wanted to figure out my way around a bow, and a sword. There were other ideas that were running around my head. Firearms were simply really. If I could minitureize a reducto, that would produce the force needed for the projectile to exit the barrel. Some sort of conjuring spell for the bullets. A way to trigger the spells, possibly with a word or an actual physical button. Wizards had a gun beat, no doubt about that. Just learning about the maximum explosive strength of the reducto made me aware of that. The week was filled with classes and getting back in the swing of being in a classroom for most of my waking hours.

I was Running into trouble on the typewriter front. Quills were simple, and didn't have many moving parts. Moving parts were the tricky bit. It would type just fine, and listen to my commands. Getting the return key and the carriage to cooperate were proving to be the difficult parts. I could command the spell to just hit the return key, but I wanted that automated. After I was done with getting the typewriter to actual work, I was going to start learning how to use the protean charms to connect two of them. Once I cracked that, it was going to get tricky. I planned on totally redoing the typewriter's chassis and making it look magical. Then I was going to get a patent for a magical device. I'd need a middleman for that, or get around to learning glamours.

Classes were going smoothly, and I guess we were in lead for the Quidditch cup. I didn't pay attention to sports. Peter and Minerva were mildly fanatical about it. Reg had brought a book to one of the games and she hadn't spoken to him for a week. Right now it was two saturdays after I had gone into the chamber. Peter and Minerva were off at the library. Reg was out on the castle grounds, something about a guided tour of the upper year greenhouses.

I was looking over my journals. I had already filled a few notebooks with my ideas. I sighed. Magical research and development was going nowheres fast. With a growl, I waved my hand, Packed my bookbag and left the room. I looked both ways before activating a disillusionment charm and left for the girl's bathroom. After making sure no one was there of course. Myrtle Warren, an utter bitch of a Ravenclaw, had a habit of moping in this bathroom. She had noticed me hanging around a few times and had taken to bugging me. Why couldn't she just sulk in the library like the rest of the emo Ravenclaws?

I entered the Chamber, went past the shrine to narcissism, and tapped twice on a stone in the back. A door slid opened. Salazar was next to his desk reading a copy of Transfiguration Monthly. He had his feet propped up on a footstool. He was wearing a terry cloth bathrobe, and were those bunny slippers? I shook my head. He glanced up at me.

"Ah, hello Tom."

"Hi Professor Slytherin."

He snorted.

"We're related. Call me Salazar, or Sal, whatever you prefer. What brings you down here?"

I sighed.

"I need help. I've run into an enchanting issue with something. I was hoping you could advise me."

"Certainly. But, there's a catch."

"What?"

"I just want some more more information on the information the wards were telling me."

I nodded.

"Fine, but I want an unbreakable Vow that I tell you will won't be told to anyone."

"Very well, but I want you to make me one in return that you won't tell anyone about my continued existence. I look around his study, and bit my bottom lip. To tell him about a fidelius, yes or no.

"Fine."

"Clyde!" He yelled, there was a small pop and a hogwarts house elf winked into existence.

"Professor Slytherin calls?" The elf asked.

"Yes, I need you to act as a binder for a Vow." The elf nodded without hesitation. Salazar clasped my left hand tightly with his right, and the elf placed his own hand on top of ours.

"Do you, Salazar Slytherin swear to never tell anyone about the conversation or it's contents, in any form or way without permission. Do you swear to uphold this vow in it's spirit, and not it's letter, upon pain of death and loss of magic?"

"I so do swear." A thin rope of fiery chain wrapped around our wrists and hands.

"Do you, Tom Riddle swear to never disclose that I am alive, that Slytherin's monster and Slytherin are one and the same without permission? Do you swear to uphold this vow in it's spirit, and not it's letter, upon death and loss of magic.

"I so do swear." Another rope joined the first.

"Word as bond." He said.

"Word as bond." I repeated. A third rope joined the first two, the magic of the spell flared, the ropes burned for a moment, and then they were gone.

"Now, tell me everything."

I did, I told him about going to sleep in my little apartment, wishing my cat good night, and crawling into bed. Then waking up the next morning in the 1940s, thrown across time and space to land in an beaten down orphanage in London. I told him about coming from a universe where Hogwarts, and Brakebills were just stories. I told him about four siblings, a lion, a witch and wardrobe. A stone table, and the old magic. A lonely orphan who had all his dreams come true and ran headlong into a war. How he gave his life to save a family he found, and was brought back to life. A depressed highschooler, obsessed with books about yet another magical land, and how he grew up, lost his first love to another damaged child, became a god, and saved magic.

It was cathartic. I had been holding in so much. I hadn't had or made time to mourn. I mourned then, cried my heart out for the life, for the friends and family I'd likely never see again. After sometime, I stopped crying. Salazar wordlessly held out a handkerchief, and I took it. Blowing my nose and wiping off my ugly snot nosed and tear soaked face.

"So, why do you think you've been sent here?" Salazar asked.

"Tom Riddle grew into a villain, a heartless coward who killed families and brought a world to its knees. I had assumed that I had been sent here to stop that. Ensure he became a force for good instead of the power mad despot he had become. Then I met Peter, and found out about Brakebills, and realized that the world I'm in is much bigger than I had initially thought."

"Well, for starters. I want you to list everything you know about the worlds you described to me. I'm not well versed on current affairs, but I've kept up with things regarding magical research."

"What about fanfiction?" I asked.

"What, pray tell, is fanfiction?"

"It's where someone writes stories set in a certain universe even though they aren't the author."

"And the writers of these stories are okay with this plagiarization?"

"It's not quite plagiarism. The authors are fine with it as long as the fanfiction writer isn't making a profit off of it."

"Make a list of the questions and possible facts from these as well." I nodded. Pulled out an empty notebook, and my pens and began a list.

"The Deathly Hallows?"

"Not given to the Peverells by Death. They created them. They were each master artificers."

"Family magics?"  
"Certain families do practice and specialize in certain branches of magic. I'm sure they're written down their secrets to pass along to their heirs."

"Are there any lost fortunes, did any of the founder's have secret vaults, are there any hordes of treasure or secret areas of the castle?"

"I personally donated nearly three-quarters of any gold I had to fund the building of Hogwarts. As did Godric and Helena. Helga was never one for material gain. There's a library in this Chamber that I've filled with books and journals. Godric enchanted the Great Hall. Helena was responsible for the Room of Requirement. Helga planted a forest around Hogwarts. I have a locket that I gave to my son, it's only value is the gold that it was created with. It was more a keepsake than anything. Godric had a blade, and his wand, which I understand has buried with him. Helga has that blasted cup, Helena's daughter ran off with her diadem. I made sure Helga's wand was buried with her, and she had that blasted cup. Rowena went through so many wands that there wasn't one she actually grew attached to. She came far too close to becoming a niffin many more times than we'd like to count, and her experiments also tended to explode spectacurley. "

"What are the properties of her cup?"

"She enchanted it to turn water into an alcohol that was smooth as glass, and could be drank like water. The four of us got drunk one night, and the next morning we had created a gargoyle and enchanted his hat."

"The Sorting Hat is the product of a night of drunken debauchery?"

Salazar froze.

"What do you mean the Sorting Hat?" He asked.

"New students wear the hat to be sorted each year. It sings a song, and then the students are sorted by what it see in it's head."

"That self important decrepit headpiece! I should have burned it when I had a chance." He muttered, a dark look on his face.

"So you didn't intend for him to do that?"

"No we didn't. Godric hated that bloody moldy hat. His grandfather gave it to him, it was at least a century old when he got it." Salazar looked angry, and slightly worried.

"Okay then."

Salazar shook his head.

"Back to your questions."

"Ancient and Noble Houses?"

"Hmm?" He queried.

"The Wizarding World is run by Pureblood families in a pseudo-monarchy that intentionally abuses and degrades muggleborns so that the few can live of the backs of the many."

"Hardly. At least in my days, purity and bloodlines didn't matter. I was born of two muggle farmers. Helena was descended from the mages of Rome. Godric was a descendant of Viking rune users that settled in England. Helga was the product of a village witch and a muggle man. Power, knowledge. Blood does not." Salazar explained, and took a sip of his tea.

"Parsel magic?"

"What is that?" He asked.

"Magic limited to only parselmouths. Powerful incantations only snake speakers can use?"

"Young wizard, when you say levitate, does a quill levitate?" Salazar asked.

"No." I said.

"Can you catch things on fire by speaking of fire?" He asked.

"No," I replied.

"Parselmouth is a language, albeit a magically imbued one, but it's just a language. I'm sure there were industrious speakers who used a bit of nonverbal magic accompanied by

parseltongue to showboat, but there are no spells in that tongue." Salazar said.

We went through my questions, I spent nearly two hours asking questions about various fanon ideas. Unfortunately, Lumos could not block the Killing Curse. I had high hopes about that idea. He told me to compile more questions as I thought of them, and I left the Chamber to find my friends and do my transfiguration homework.

The days and months passed in a flurry of magical research, homework, and socialization. I kept up with my chats with Salazar, and perfected my typewriter. Soon, it was time for exams. My first year of Hogwarts ended, and I boarded the train for a long summer at Wool's.


	10. Chapter 10

The train ride home was uneventful. We discussed our plans for the summer. We were all staying home over break. The war had made travel on both sides of the fence difficult. It had even begun affecting Hogwarts. The food had become somewhat plain as rationing kicked in. It was still filling thanks to farm the school kept, but the extras, butter for potatoes, tea for our morning sugar. Those were available in limited quantities. Small things that I knew meant rationing had kicked in, and I knew the summer ahead of me was going to be difficult at the orphanage with it's already meager food supply. After dropping my sack of galleons at Gringotts and meeting with my banker for a few investments, I went to the Leaky and rented a room for the summer. I used that room to test a few ideas. First of all, the Trace wasn't tied to your wand. I didn't know how it was used, but I guessed that it was based on performing magic in a muggle area. That made sense. I'd still stay at the Orphanage, there was a role call and inspection every night and morning, but even with the ongoing war, they let their wards run basically wild in the summer.

The summer ahead of me was going to be busy. I had a lot of reading to do. I wanted to be done with fifth years books. I also wanted to start brewing potions. Narnia was coming soon. I still didn't known how I'd manage to drag myself along with Peter and the rest, but I'd still plan to go there. I brewed Wit Sharpening and Blood Replenishing. Along with essence of dittany, pepper up potion and dreamless sleep. They were stored in a Everfresh potions case. Guaranteed to last me two years or my galleons back. Through the goblins and a shady lawyer in knockturn I'd created a business that specialized in plants and an ailing apothecary. I'd spent a quarter of the gold I'd brought home for summer term on live specimens of some animals like lacewings and smaller creatures critical to potions that I wasn't sure would be in Narnia. These were under a stasis spell in a shrunken trunk. I'd also bought dozens of different plant seeds. This included the magical and the mundane. Corn, wheat, potatoes. Staple crops. Just in case. Finally I was gathering books. Not just my usual tomes of baby wandless magic and runes. I bought books on first aid, of magic and muggle variety, along with gauze and disinfect and needle and thread I'd nicked from the orphanage infirmary. I also purchased titles on the printing press, steel smelting, railroads, plumbing, papermaking, battlefield strategy and the basics of gunpowder and firearms. I also bought books on economics. If it meant stopping the Witch and something screwed up, I was perfectly fine with bringing closely guarded firearms to Narnia. I was busy with other bits. I'd cracked my typewriter, and was working on the protean charm connection. So I bought ten more of those under a glamour I'd learned from Salazar. I also grabbed a few dozen reams of paper and a book on ciphers. My next step after this would be learning how to create two way mirrors.

I had grabbed books on warding and protective enchantments from the room, along with a Amelia Popper's Practical Exercises For Young Magicians. It was a worn, tattered copy filled with notations and ink spots, but it would be the cornerstone of my summer reading along with a copy of The Novice's Guide to Neuromancy: A Beginner's Guide to the Mind Arts. I bought an owl from Eyelop's so I could write my friends.

The summer passed uneventfully. I filled my days with brewing and reading, and correspondence between my friends.

Peter was worried. Edmund had come home from school changed. He had been friendly, and outgoing. When he came back home, he had turned withdrawn and sullen. Quick to lash out at and bully his younger sister. Aside from that, there was friction at home. His father was in the service. His mother was a nurse and worked long hours. In a few weeks time, him and his siblings would go to their cousin's, the Scrubbs, for the summer.

Reginald was busy in his family's Greenhouse. His days were filled with plants, soil and sun.

Minerva sent letters to all of us admonishing us to hurry and finish our summer homework and telling us her about her adventures working on the family's demiguise farm.

The summer was uneventful for the most part, but I did learn something interesting. Apparently, Diagon was enclosed by a spatial dilation, based in the yard behind the Leaky Cauldron. From a muggle perspective, the Leaky had a rather large yard, but that was it. This yard was protected by nearly every magical protection known to wizardkind coupled by amazingly disillusionment, muggle repelling, and notice me not charms.

There was also the news in the Quill Catcher, basically a gossip rag. Disturbing news, tales of wizards from the fronts about inferi and zombies that I dismissed as the ramblings of idiots.

The Prophet hadn't reported anything, and that was the kind of thing that would make front page news.

I went through the finger excersizes in Popper's book, but they were rigorous, and exhausting. Throughout the whole summer, I barely made it through a quarter of the material.

As summer drew to a close, and autumn approached I got my list for School. I'd been conditionally accepted to the third year's Ancient Rune class, the rest of my classes were normal. I'd have to give up my after lunch free period, but it would be worth it to take that OWL a year early. Along with access to the Restricted Section in Fifth year instead of Sixth.

I grabbed the entire four years of books, along with the Arithmancy. I'd probably take those two electives, along with everything else. Why? Not because I wanted to learn everything. I could care less about muggle studies. I could teach that class, but I wanted a time turner. The things I could do with that. The things I could do if I reverse engineered one of those!

I already owned the rest of the texts up until fifth year. I managed to snag the sixth year copy of advanced potion making.

Then I grabbed two more ridiculously expanded trunks with shrinking features. I made a point to carry my entire library with me, and I wanted to carry the rest of everything with me. Because, preparation. I grabbed a magical tent could comfortably sleep six. This went into my backpack

I grabbed robes from Madam Malkins, and made sure to grab extra winter gear along with a nice pair of dragonskin boots and adult gloves. I was starting to grow. While my gloves from last year still fit, I had already outgrown my boots. The whole shopping trip had cost me almost two thousand galleons. I had just shy of eight thousand galleons left in my vault. Everything was pushed into my trunk in the orphanage.

On the Orphanage front, I was busy making friends. A few pieces of chocolate and a listening ear went a long ways for scared kids. A few escorted trips to a nearby park. A teddy bear here, a stuffed rabbit there. Practical use of Tom's charisma and just a touch of the wandless compulsion he could use, and I was soon the darling of the orphanage. Popularity here didn't matter to me, but I was starting to make plans for the future. I needed this practice for later in life.

Sunday, September First, 1940 dawned sunny and clear for smoggy London. Mrs. Cole escorted me to Nine and Three-Quarters where I found my friends and enjoyed a leisurely train ride back to school.

AN: Reviews make the world go round.


	11. Chapter 11

The train ride was mostly uneventful. Aside a visit from my two best friends in Slytherin house.

They barged into our compartment.

"Haven't you two heard of knocking, or do your house elves do that for you as well as wiping your ass?" I said, noticing the Minerva's face went red after I used the profanity.

"I was just making sure the mudbloods hadn't left with the rest of their kind." Black sneered.

He was referring to the lack of seventh year muggleborns and half-blood guys on the train. Maybe a quarter of them had been eighteen The draft had affected them as much as it had the muggles.

"I understand that there's a war happening, but don't your kind usually hide in the dirt like a bunch of rats when things get rough?" Black said with a sneer.

In an instant Peter's wand was in his hand. Sighing, I made my own appear from my holster with a flick of my wrist.

"Get out, Black." He said, his voice deceptively calm.

"Or you'll what, Pevensie?"

"Pete, mate, it's not worth it." I said. Malfoy looked between Peter and I.

"Black, I believe you've touched on the mudblood's sore spot. What's the matter Pevensie, is your dad one of those idiot muggles running around the continent with one of those ridiculous metal wands? I hope something doesn't happen, wouldn't that just be terrible if you had to drop out of school."

"Stupefy!" Peter yelled. I shook my head, and raised a protego. Malfoy countered the spell with his own shield, and then shot a purple looking hex out of his wand that was blocked by my shield.

"Flipendo," I heard Black say, an overpowered knockback jinx smacked into my protego and it shattered.

"Serpensortia!" Malfoy said, and a king cobra appeared in thin air and immediately went after Peter.

"Don't you dare!" I hissed at the snake. Wishing I could kick my own ass.

"Speaker?" The snake asked, turning toward me.

"Chase those two morons down. Don't kill them or harm them, but scare them. Bonus points if you can break their wands."

"Yes, Speaker."

The snake turned to Malfoy and Black and started slithering towards the two. They ran out of the compartment and down the train corridor, my new reptile minion on their heels.

I looked around. Minerva and Reginald had horrified looks on their face, Peter merely looked curious.

"What?"

"Mate, you can talk to snakes?"

"Yeah, can't you?" I said. _Play it cool tommy boy._ I thought.

"No, I bloody well can't!" Reginald practically yelped.

"What Regi is so eloquently trying to say is that is a special magical ability. There hasn't been a parselmouth in Hogwarts for centuries." Minerva said.

"Huh," I replied.

"I just thought it was a magic thing." I said with a shrug, and went back to my copy of _Charms Quarterly._

Reginald and Minerva gave each other a look.

"Mate, it's supposed to be a dark ability."

"What?"

"Salazar Slytherin's family is one of the only known lines who had that ability in England. It's rumored that there's a secret chamber hidden in the school protected by parseltongue."

"Cool," I replied.

"What does the temperature have to do with anything?" Peter asked, he still looked shaken.

"Mate, are you okay?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Look, those two, they don't know anything. They've never had a day of worry in their lives. Don't listen to them. Your dad will be fine."

He nodded shakily.

"Want to play exploding snap?" I said, pulling a deck from my pocket.

He nodded again. Reg and Minerva joined us, and we spent the rest of the train ride in peace.

We arrived at Hogwarts, boarded the carriages, and took them up to the school.  
The feast, was, as always, amazing. The sorting was boring. We headed up to our dormitories, now moved up a level. The first years would have our old rooms.

The next day we wandered down to breakfast. A bunch of owls dropped of our timetables. Our

First class was History of Magic. Oh yeah, nap time!

After our nap, I mean class, we had potions. The slytherins had arrive before us, and a sea of green and silver covered the left half of the room. Peter and I took one workbench. Minerva and Reg took the one next to us.

After a short lecture, Slughorn conjured the directions for the sleeping solution on the board and began socializing with his favorite students. At the end of the class, we decanted a perfect sleeping solution thanks to Peter. We were assigned an essay on the properties and uses of sleeping solution. Then we broke for lunch.

After lunch we went to the common room. My first runes class wouldn't be until tuesday. We all worked on our essay and then headed off to Transfiguration. We covered the softening charm. Minerva was the first to get the spell, and I had a theory that she had been practicing over summer. After being dismissed with an essay on the softening charm, we went to Dinner.

While eating, I was greeted by a fourth-year Prefect. A muggle born I couldn't remember the name of.

"Riddle, the Headmaster wants to see you in his office after Dinner. You three as well. He said, motioning to my friends. I traded a knowing look with Peter. This had to be about the train incident.

"Thank you Bobby," Minerva said sweetly, and the prefect walked off.

His name was Bobby! I knew that. Totally.

We finished dinner and trooped off to the Headmaster's office. Malfoy and Black were waiting for us, as were Slughorn and Professor Merrythought.

Headmaster Armando was old, really old. He looked feeble and thin, as if a stiff wind would blow him over.

"Hello Mr. Riddle, thank you for coming up here today."

"You're welcome, sir, but I'm afraid I didn't have much choice in the matter. I think I understand why I'm here, but why are my friends present?"

"I've called them here because they're witnesses. Professor Slughorn has told me some alarming news that Misters Black and Malfoy shared with him."

"Sir, are you talking about the incident on the train?"

"Yes, I am. I was told that you sicced a cobra on your fellow students, that you used a very dark spell to do so."

"What sort of spell, sir?" I put on my best innocent orphan face.

"Don't play dumb, Riddle." Slughorn said, "They told me about the parsel magic you used."  
Galena huffed, and I could tell she was annoyed by the whole thing.

"Sir, Malfoy and Black barged into our compartment and started insulting my friend. I'll admit Peter threw the first spell, but they were the ones who conjured the snake. I'll admit I told the snake to chase them, but I would _never_ ask a venomous creature to harm another student." I said, wide-eyed. Not if I would get caught.

"So you admit to using parseltongue!" Slughorn said triumphantly.

"What's parseltongue?" I asked demurely.

"Tom, it's the ability to speak to snakes." Professor Merrythought said.

"Can't all wizards and witches do that?" I asked her, and she shook her head.

"No, I'm afraid not. The ability is exceedingly rare, and it was thought to have died out. Have you talked to snakes before?"

Tom had. A garden snake that had frozen to death over a winter.

"Yes. I had a pet garden snake that froze because I couldn't bring her into the orphanage with me. She was my first friend. I didn't mean to scare them professor. I just wanted them to leave us alone."

I turned to Malfoy and Black. They stared at me like a two lambs who had been delivered to a lion.

I smiled all them, all teeth. A smile that could be over eager, but could also be a predator baring its fangs.

"I really don't want to harm guys, how about we bury the hatchet?" I said, and extended my hand.

"See, Horace, it's just boys being boys." Professor Merrythought said.

Black hesitantly shook my hand, as did Malfoy. I turned back to the Headmaster.

"I'll understand if I have to serve a detention, Headmaster Dippet. All I ask is that my friends aren't punished alongside me."

Headmaster Dippet smiled.

"There hasn't been any damage done, Mr. Riddle. I'm sure you didn't mean to scare them so harshly. Let's call this meeting, and the knowledge of how you deeply you scared your two classmates your punishment."

"I'm sorry headmaster."

"I'm so sorry Mr. Malfoy. I'm sorry Mr. Black. This won't happen again." I said. Damn fucking right it wouldn't. The next time these two little snitches tried this I'd feed them to my ancestor.

"That will be all. Ladies and Gentleman, you are dismissed." The six of us left the headmaster's office. We got to bottom of the stairs. When I sure there weren't any teachers around, I turned to Malfoy and Black.

"Oi! Morons."

"What do you want Riddle?" Malfoy asked. He was still paler than normal.

"The next time you snitch on a parselmouth, remember. You live in the house of snakes. Those are snakes that all over the dungeons? The ones in the art work? On the walls? Carved into your bedposts? They're listening, watching. Keep up this tirade against me and my friends, and they might just bite." I said, and took a step towards the two. They fled.

I turned to my friends.

They all look kinda pale.

"What?!" I said with a cheerful grin.

"Mate, remind me never to tee you off." Reg said, and we walked back to our common room and went to bed.

Tuesday morning came, and instead of having a lie in like my friends, I trucked my butt to an early morning Runes class. The class was empty. Professor Babbling was at her desk. A dictaquill floated, industriously grading papers. She was leafing through a book and sipping a cup of tea.

"Hello Tom," She said with a smile.

"Am I early?" I asked.

"Oh no. See, Hogwarts has a rather strict schedule. This is normally my office hour for students, and the second year schedule is rather set in stone, we've decided the best way for you to learn runes would be to meet with me independently until you can join your year mates next year. If you do get ahead, don't worry, third year has some leeway we can use for scheduling." I nodded.

"Good. Filius has informed me that you were roughly halfway through the third year material before Summer. Your first weeks work will cover the first week of third year. I'll give you the work and then you can bring it back to me to be graded."

"Does this mean I can sleep in on tuesdays? I have an Astronomy practical tonight, and I'd prefer to be well rested for that.

"Of course! Our meetings should only take a half hour or so." With a flick of her wand, an assignment list appeared on the desk I chose.

The first class was spent examining the Nordic Elder Futhark. We were given a long worksheet, and I put my reading to the use. That, and my total obsession with all things fantasy in my previous life. I did fairly well on the worksheet. I was assigned an essay to pick one of the runes we were covering and enumerate all their uses.

After runes, I had another potion's class. Slughorn was frosty towards me. Like I cared. After the double potions class, our schedule was free until our late night Astronomy practical. I resolved to drop this class as soon as possible.

Wednesday was our first Herbology course. Mandrakes are creepy. It was nearly Halloween, and one Friday Peter got a letter from home. His face went pale.

"Peter, what's wrong?"

"My family's house was almost bombed. My mother is sending my siblings away to a family friend's mansion in the country. Edmund is okay, but I guess he was cut by an exploding window when he went back to get a photo of my dad."

"But everyone's okay?" I asked. He nodded.

"Mom says that I can stay at the castle for Christmas or go to the country. Instead of taking the train to London I'm to take it to Coombe Halt."

The Express did make different stops, but that was a long way out of the way.

"Peter, I may be able to help you with that at least."

"Hmm?"

"I did some odd jobs in Diagon over the Summer Hols. I have some pocket money saved up. It might be enough to get you a portkey from London to Coombe Halt."  
"Tom, I wouldn't!"

"What? Take money from an orphan?" I said, and he had a stricken look on his face.

"That's not what I meant!" He said.

"Tom, it's fine. I've come up with a way to make a bit of galleon. I've got some money, and if it makes you happy, I'll count it as your christmas present."

"How are you making money?"

"I'm getting discarded furniture and such from junk shops. Using reparo on them in Diagon, and then selling them to other junk shops for more money. It's not much, but it gives me pocket money,"

"Fine, but you're coming with me."  
"What?"

"Reg and Min are headed home for the Holidays. You're either going to be at that bloody orphanage in the middle of the bombs dropping, or you're going to be at the castle by yourself. I won't have either. I'll write to my Mum and ask her to ask the Professor. When she explains your circumstances, I'm sure Professor Kirke won't have a problem with it." He said. _Score. _

"Really?" I asked.

"Of course."

"Great! I'll send an Owl to Gringotts."

After writing a letter to my banker and sending it off with Aero, my owl, I snuck down to the Chamber to see if Salazar was home. He was not. He hadn't been since I'd come back to Hogwarts. He'd left me with a note saying that he was off to explore.

I only had a few weeks to prepare. I had most of the stuff I needed in my trunks. Which were shrunk and stored in my backpack. Another trunk was filled with gold and books. Clothes that I'd found in the room that I Mended and Transfigured into clothes that looked like normal muggle wear for the time. Begin stealing food from the kitchens and placing them under stasis spells to store in another trunk. I asked for and gathered every single book the room had on wandless magic.

The days flew by in a blur. Soon it was the near the end of term. We boarded the train, wished Reg and Minnie happy hols and Happy Christmas. I placed warming charms on us while we were still safe from the Trace. Then we found the portkey a rode a holey boot from London to Coombe Halt.

.


	12. Chapter 12

We waited at Coombe Hall for about a half an hour before a dour old lady, who had to be the McCready, came and picked us up. Muttering all the while about more children running amok around the house. We arrived at the Professor's Mansion and entered through a mudroom. In the foyer the other three Pevensies were waiting for us. Well, waiting for Peter. The girls swarmed him with hugs. Edmund stayed back. He had a sullen look on his face. There was a jagged scar on his forehead from the window I presumed. I walked up to him, and extended my hand.

"Tom Riddle, pleased to meet you." I said.

"Edmund Pevensie, likewise." He said, and shook my head.

Peter introduced me to his sisters and we went to the wing of the house were the children were living. The house was almost like a museum. It was all wood panels and plush carpets. Dozens of different statues and busts. Various weapons were on the walls, and hundreds of books lived on dozens of shelves.

We settled in. I didn't know when _it_ was going to happen. I'd preshrunk all of my trunks and they were in my pockets. My backpack and school trunk only held my some of clothes, parchment, and a couple of books that I had duplicates of in my trunks. We planned to go sledding the next day, but a blizzard had hit the countryside, and snow was already covering the grounds. A harsh, howling blizzard raged outside. We were bored to tears quite quickly. Lucy suggested a game of hide and seek between the five of us. I took out a copy of my charms text and bowed out.

Peter had scarcely counted to a hundred before I heard Lucy shout.

"I'm okay! I'm back!" Peter gave me a look. I marked my place in my textbook, left the couch and joined him.

We found Edmund and Lucy in the hallway.

"I'm okay Peter! I'm fine!"

Susan quickly entered behind Peter. She saw her siblings and looked at me.

"Does this mean I win?"

"These two haven't quite twigged onto the game Su."

Lucy gave us bewildered looks. Her cheeks were rosy.

"What do you mean? Didn't anyone miss me?"

"I think Lucy doesn't want to play anymore Su."

"I was gone for hours and hours! I had tea with a very nice faun! I was in the woods!"

"Are we playing a new game?" Susan asked.

"I'm not playing! I was gone!"

"Lucy, come here." I said softly, she walked over to me. I raised the back of my hand to her cheek.

"Peter, she's freezing. Feel her face." He did.

"Tom, you're right."

"Lucy, where did you go?"  
"The faun, his name was Mr. Tumnus. He said that we in Narnia."

"Where did you hide?"

"In the wardrobe, in the spare room." We all went into the spare room. Peter entered the wardrobe, and soon reached the back of it.

"Tom. There's something here." He said.

I went into the wardrobe myself. There was a slight static tingle across my skin when I reached the back of it, it felt like touching a live wire.

"You feel that, right?" He said, his voice in my ear sent a tingle of something else down my back and I firmly shut those feelings down hard, bringing my rudimentary occlumency barriers up.

"Yeah, I feel it." I almost choked out.

We exited the wardrobe.

"Lucy, I believe you." Peter said.

"But whatever is there, I don't think it's there now."

She nodded sadly, and we all went back to the study to while away the hours until bed. I fell asleep around nine, and was woke up the next morning. It was December 23rd.

Over breakfast Lucy told us she had gone again to Narnia the night before. Edmund had accompanied her this time. She regaled us of another story of Mr. Tumnus, and Edward was oddly quiet.

"What did you do in Narnia?" I asked Edmund.

"Oh nothing, I got lost in the woods for awhile until Lu found me again." He said, and I nodded. I was still trying to figure out whether or not to put the breaks on his betrayal. It would save everyone some strife, but that was a huge moment in his development.

"Is Mr. Tumnus okay, then Lucy?"  
She nodded happily.

"Yes, the White Witch didn't find out about me thank goodness. Time moves oddly there though."

"How do you figure?" I asked.

"I was only gone for a few moments, and I was there hours ago. But, Mr. Tumnus says that it had been weeks since he had seen me.

"It's a magical world, I'm sure there are all sorts of different things there." I replied, and took a bite of toast. She nodded. The snowstorm had subsided, and we went outside for fun. We spent hours playing in the snow and it would have been grand, had Edmund not chucked a ball of ice and snow at me that I deflected with a small wandless protego instinctually. This ricocheted off my shield and smashed into a window.

We ran into the house to find the study in disarray. That was when we heard the voice of the McCready muttering about noisy children. We ran down the hall. Each door we tried was locked, until we arrived in the room with wardrobe.

"You've got to be joking!" Susan exclaimed. Edmund was the first to run into the wardrobe, quickly followed by Lucy. I rolled my eyes and followed him.

"Peter, you're stepping on my foot!" Susan yelled.

"Well, get your elbow out of my stomach!" He retorted. In a few short steps, I brushed against pine.

"These aren't coats!" I yelped. Then we tumbled out into the snow. I stood, and brushed the snow off my knees.

I looked up, there, surrounded by ivy and pine. Glowing bright despite the sunny day, was the lantern. We were here. We made it to Narnia. I made it to Narnia.

**AN: Reviews make the world go around. **


	13. Chapter 13

The snow around us was deep. It came around to our ankles. We were in our winter gear, but it was still freezing. I was in my muggle clothes, which meant no enchanted clothes with warming charms. My gloves and boots had charms, but I could already feel the cold seeping into my skin.

Peter was quick to think. He retrieved five coats from the forest, or the wardrobe and gave them to each of us. As I put mine own, I felt something heavy drop into my pocket.

I reached into the coat's pocket, and my hand met metal. I closed my hand around it, and pulled it from the coat. It was a sword, with a silver hilt and a shining blade. The hilt and crossguard were adorned with shining rubies, and carved into the blade were the words Godric Gryffindor.

"Tom, where did you get that?" Peter asked. I offered him the sword, hilt first, and he read the words carved into the relic.

"Gryffindor's sword?" He asked, the confusion evident on his face.

"_According to Hogwarts: A History,_ It comes to a true gryffindor, to one who it thinks might need it. We're in a magical land Peter, serves to reason that there would be a magical sword or two along for the ride. All the stories have them." I said.

"So what should we do with it?"

"Keep it? I don't know. I'm thinking the sword knows we'll need it at some point."

The sword was in my off hand. I pulled out my wand with the other, and began incanting the warming charm. I placed the first one on Lucy, the second one I placed on myself. It felt like being wrapped in a warm blanket and I basked in the warmth. I put an extension spell on my shirt pocket and placed the sword in that. I'd figure out what to do with it later.

"What are you doing?!" Peter asked.

"What do you mean?"

"The Trace!" He all but hissed.

"Peter, we're in a magical world. We may have come from England, but I quite doubt we're still there. Now, you know the warming charm. Help me." I said, and covered Susan with my third spell. Of course he knew the warming charm. It was one of the first spells we had learned outside the classroom. In a drafty old castle, you learned the quickest ways to get warm.

He took out his own wand and enunciated the spell carefully. He used the charm on Edmund, and then used the charm on himself.

"Now, where should we go. Lucy, your friend, the faun. Could you find your way to his house?" I asked, and the little girl nodded.

We traipsed off into the woods. It was fun running through the snow covered forest. We didn't worry about the cold. Our spells saw to that. It also protected us against frostbite.

Eventually we wondered into almost a canyon. At the far end, carved into stone, there was what looked to be a small patio.

Lucy was the first to see the door off it's hinges.

"Lu?" Peter asked, and she took off towards the cave at a run.

"Lucy!" Peter called, running after his sister. The other two Pevensies on his heels. I followed quickly. We went into the house. What had once been a nice home had been overtaken by snowdrifts. Furniture and dishes were smashed. Books had been ripped from shelves and torn in two.

Lucy wandered around the home, a look of shock on her face. Tears were on her cheeks.

I went to work, and pulled out my wand.

"Reparo, Reparo, Reparo." I murmured over and over under my breath. Furniture righted itself. Dishes became unbroken. Pictures returned to walls.

Peter found the note, nailed to one of the stone columns in the Faun's home.

"The faun, Tumnus, is hereby charged with high treason against her imperial majesty, Jadis, Queen of Narnia, for comforting her enemies and fraternizing with humans.

Signed, Maugrim. Captain of the Secret Police. Long Live with Queen."

"Alright, now we really should go back." Susan said, the worry in her tone evident.

"But what about Mr. Tumnus?" Lucy asked.

"He was arrested just by being around humans, I don't think there's much we can do." Susan replied.

"You don't understand, do you?" Lucy asked, "I'm the human. She must have found out he helped me."

I looked at Edmund. Good, feel guilty.

'Don't worry Lu, we'll think of something!" Peter said.

I heard a pst sound, and looked over. There was a robin sitting on one of the branches.

"Did that bird just pst us?" I asked. We went outside. I turned around, and cast another reparo on the door, followed by a colloportus charm. No one would be able to enter that house without the use of magic. After this whole thing was done with, I'd help Tumnus fix his home. I turned just as Peter tried to tame Mr. Beaver.

"I ain't gonna smell it if that's what you want." Mr. Beaver said. I was expecting a talking animal, but it still a shock.

"It's a talking beaver!" Edmund exclaimed. No shit sherlock.

"Lucy Pevensie?" Mr. Beaver asked.

"Yes?" Lucy replied.  
Mr. Beaver took a wadded up white handkerchief from somewhere and handed it to her.

"He gave it to me just before they took him." He nodded solemnly.

"Is he alright?" Lucy asked.

"Further in," Mr. Beaver replied and scurried off towards the woods where he came from. Peter made to follow him, and Susan grabbed him.

"Peter, we don't know where he's going." Susan said in a half whisper.

"She's right. How do we know we can trust this beaver?" Edmund asked, his voice anything but a whisper.

"He says he knows the faun." Peter said, and gave me a look as if to help him out.

"He's a beaver! He shouldn't be saying anything!"

"Mate, your sister has a point."

"Thanks for the help, Tom." Peter growled at me.

"Is everything alright?" Mr. Beaver asked.

"Yes. We were just talking." Peter replied.

"That's better left for safer corners." Mr. Beaver said, and hurried further into the tree line.

"He means the trees." Lucy said, and we took off after the talking rodent.

We followed him through the cliffs. It was nearly dark by the time we had arrived. The dam was gorgeous, a picturesque representation of a beaver dam.

"There is home sweet home." Mr. Beaver said.

"Oh, what a beautiful dam Mr. Beaver." Lucy said, and Mr. Beaver had the look of someone who really, really wanted to brag about something but knew it would be poor manners to.

"Merely a trifle." He replied.

Mrs. Beaver hurried out the door as we approached.

"Is that you Beaver? I find out you've been out with Badger again I'll...Oh, they're not Badgers. I never thought I would see this day!" She said, taking in the sight of the five of us, and she turned to husband.

"You couldn't give me ten minutes warning! Look at this fur!" She said, hurriedly beginning to groom herself.

"I would have given you a week if I thought it would help!" He replied with a nervous chuckle.

"Well you must be cold and hungry. Let's get you inside for some food and civilized conversation." She said with a pointedly look at Me. Beaver. Lucy, Susan, and Peter followed Mrs. Beaver inside.

I trailed behind them. Edmund looked lost for a moment, and looked up, and I followed his gaze. He was staring at a castle in the distance. Her castle.

"Enjoying the scenery, are we?" He asked Edmund, who gave him a nasty look. I followed the two of them inside. There weren't many chairs, so I conjured myself one. Instantly Mr. Beaver turned on me.

"What was that?" He said dangerously.

"I'm a wizard, as is Peter. We learn magic."  
"A son of Adam, a wizard?" Mr. Beaver scoffed. "Hardly."

"I am a wizard, and I'm a good one. Not like this crazy queen you Narnians have. I swear it." I replied. He huffed and gave me a look.

There were potatoes, and fish, and as much butter as we wanted for the potatoes. Near the end of the meal, Mrs. Beaver surprised us with a marmalade roll. I looked around the Beaver's house. There was a sewing machine in the corner. A smoked ham, and some onions were on strings. The house was clean, but poorly furnished. How many pounds of wood did a beaver need to saw to earn a sewing machine? I wondered.

"Is there nothing we can do about Mr. Tumnus?" Peter asked.

"Well, there's hope!" Mrs. Beaver said nervously  
Yeah, there's a load full of hope. Aslan is on the move!" Mr. Beaver replied.

"Who's Aslan?" Edmund asked. Mr. Beaver laughed. Mrs. Beaver saw the expressions on our faces and laid her paw on Me. Beaver. I was determined to stop Edmund from leaving. Maybe, just maybe. He'd learn something without going through hell, and he was a child. I didn't want him to suffer for no reason.

"Who's Aslan? You silly little blighter you don't know do you?" Mr. Beaver asked, and I was suddenly interested in what he had to say.

"He's only the king of the whole wood, the true king of Narnia and he's waiting for you!"

"Waiting for us?" Lucy asked.

"You gotta be joking!" Mr. Beaver exclaimed.

"Look, Aslan's return, Tumnus' arrest, the secret police! They're all happening because of you!" He replied.

"You're blaming us?" Susan replied, a look of annoyance on her face.

"We're not blaming you dear, we're thanking you."

"There's a prophecy:

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,

At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,

When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,

And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.

When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone,

Sits at Cair Paravel in throne,

The evil time will be over and done."

"Like Divination?" Peter asked.

"Divination is awfully wooly." I said.

"You know that doesn't really rhyme." Susan said.

"I know, but you're missing the point!"

"It's long been told that two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve will appear to defeat the White Witch, guided by a riddle from the stars, and restore peace to Narnia." Mrs. Beaver said.

Hold the phone. What? I shook my head, and fought desperately against the panic attack that was threatening to rise in my chest. That. Was. Not. Good.

"Obviously the riddle is the prophecy." Mr. Beaver said.

"You four are the ones foretold, I'm not sure about this one." He added, with a jerk of his paw towards me.

"And you think we're the ones?" Peter asked.

"Well you'd better be, Aslan's already figured out your army!" Mr. Beaver replied.

"I think you've made a mistake; we're not heroes!"

"We're from Finchley!" Susan exclaimed.

"But what about Mr. Tumnus?" Lucy asked. Lucy, never stop being a woobie. It's so heartening.

"Sorry Lucy. It's out of our hands."

"Thank you for your hospitality." Susan Replied.

"Ed, time to go. Ed?" Peter looked around the room. Edward was gone. How did I miss him leaving? One minute he was there, and then he wasn't. As if he turned invisible. Oh bloody hell. Hogwarts might have another Pevensie.  
"I'm going to kill him."

"You may not have to, has Edmund been to Narnia before?" Mr. Beaver asked, a concerned glint in his eye.

Peter made to rush out the door.

"Peter, stop!" I said.  
"Not now Tom, I've got to find my brother!"

"We may not be able to help him."  
"What?"

"Peter, she's a witch. She could have done _anything _ to him. It might not even be him. It could be one of her followers under glamour or polyjuice. We don't know. This is a trap." I replied. He froze for a moment, and then nodded.

"Your friend is right, Peter. Only Aslan can save him now." Mr. Beaver said.

"Then take us to him."

We got packed quickly. I used an extension charm on a bag Mrs. Beaver had, and Peter and I used the Pack spell to grab anything Mrs. Beaver told us to. We ran through the tunnels.

"This should lead to Badger's!" Mr. Beaver said.

"I thought it lead to your mums!"

We heard howling behind us, and as we climbed out of the tunnel, Lucy tripped.

There was an entire village of stone wildlife.

Mr. Beaver ran over to Badger.

"He was my best mate!" He said, crying and hugging the statue.

"What happened to them?"

"This is what happens to the enemies of the White Witch." A voice behind us said, and we turned around.

"Stand still, traitor." Mr. Beaver said harshly.

"Relax, I'm one of the good guys." Mr. Fox said.

"Well you look mighty like one of the bad guys."

"An unfortunate family resemblance, but we can discuss family breeding later right now we need to move." Mr. Fox said.  
"What do you suggest?" Peter asked, and we hurried into the tree. Moments later, the wolves burst through the barrier and surrounded the fox. One grabbed the fox by the back, and I heard the yelp of pain as he was shaken. That was when my Gryffindor said got the best of me.

"Oh sod this." I muttered, drawing my wand. I hated bullies.

Peter gave me a look.

I swirled my wand around my head, and felt the disillusionment spell come into effect.

I dropped to the ground, and allowed an _arresto momentum _spell to catch my fall.

"Incarcerous!" Chains wrapped around Maugrim. I'd save him for Peter.

"Reducto!" I shouted. The spell struck the side of the wolf holding the fox. Grey fur and blood flew through the air.

"Incendio!" A wolf caught aflame. A jet of red light shot from the tree and stunned a third.

I neatly lopped of the head of another with diffindo. Peter stunned the sixth. I dispelled my invisibility.

"Come on guys, get down here. Now, let's see what we have here."

Maugrim was snarling and growling.

I cut the ropes off his muzzle off with diffindo and squatted down besides him.

"Listen here wolf, I'm going to let you go."

"As soon as I'm free, I'll rip your little throat out son of Adam!" He growled. I shot him with a stinging hex. He yelped in pain. Then I levitated him, wandlessly.

"No. You won't. Run along back to that witch you call a queen. Tell her a Son of Riddle has no use for cowards, bullies, or those who hurt innocents. Tell her that she can still surrender, and if she doesn't, we will surely cross wands in the future. Do you understand?"

The wolf nodded his head once. I dropped him to ground. Hard. Then before I rennervated his two companions, I bound them with incarcerous.

"When the ropes come off, you'll have to the count of ten before I kill all three of you, can you count mongrel?" He nodded.

"Good." I cut the connection to the incarcerous spell, and the ropes fell away.

"One," The wolves ran for their lives into the dark, bringing my message with them.

AN: A bunch of this dialogue was taken from the film, because I'm not rewriting something that was already written. 


	14. Chapter 14

The next morning we took off for the stone table. I'd healed the fox with a few episkey's and some essence of dittany. Today was colder than the day before, and Peter and I kept busy casting warm charms on our party. We had been traveling for three or four hours at that point. Mr. Beaver said we were about halfway to the river.

"Aslan's camp is just over there by the stone table just across the frozen river." Mr. Beaver said.

"A river?" Susan asked.

"It's been frozen for 100 years!" Mrs. Beaver exclaimed.

"It seems so far." Peter said. I had to agree with him. Narnia was huge. From the Lampost to Cair Paravel indeed. I had a feeling that when we defeated Jadis, our problems were just beginning. I had plans for Beruna. For after, I had ideas. Half formed thoughts that were lying half forgotten in one of my notebooks. I knew that my performance last night had sent butterflies rippling across the night alongside the wolves. Who knew how Jadis would react to another magic user. I hadn't thought things through. I should have just let the wolves play their part. But even that thought seemed wrong. I hated bullies. Tom had too. It was why he had taken those two to that lake inside the cliff. All of three of them shared a secret. There was a reason why a group of orphans could afford a trip to the sea. Their benefactor had been a sick, twisted _fuck_ who only wanted victims. He had become Tom's first victim in the end. Tom's experiences with bullies, and my own, had shaped my outlook towards them. It was why I was harsh to Black and Malfoy. Bullies needed a taste of their own medicine, and that was something I'd gladly provide.

Before coming here, I had wanted to find a way to compel Jadis. Use the Imperio or something. A bottle of liquid compulsion was going to find a way down her throat, and I'd have turned her own army against her.

Now? After seeing a village of stone creatures who had done nothing wrong? After seeing the home of someone who's only crime was to give comfort to a little girl torn to shreds? When we met on the battlefield, if I could manage it, I'd have but two words to say to her. Those words may be Unforgivable, but it would worth it. Forgiveness be damned.

We walked for hours, and Mr. Beaver was starting to get on our nerves.

"Come on, before we're old!" Mr. Beaver shouted.

"If he tells me to Hurry up one more time I'm going to turn him into a big fluffy hat." Peter muttered.

"Mate, I'm sure I could find a spell or two to help us." I said in agreement.

"Hurry up Son of Adam! We don't have all day!" Mr. Beaver said.

"He is getting kinda bossy." Lucy said, and I wondered if a sticking charm could be applied to his mouth wandlessly.

Suddenly we heard sleigh bells ringing. I knew what was about to happen, but the rest of them were instantly terrified. They ran to a river bank, and I skidded down the hill with them.

There was silence for a few moments.

"Maybe she's gone." Lucy whispered.

"I'll go and have a look." Peter said, moving for the entrance. I put my arm across his chest.

"No, you're no good to Narnia dead." Mr. Beaver said.

"Neither are you Beaver." Mrs. Beaver said.

"Mr. Beaver, I'll go with you." I said, and the rodent nodded. We traveled up the river bank.

Of course it was Father Christmas. Red suit trimmed with white fur and all. A sack of presents on shoulders. He had an aura of jollyness, and I instantly felt a thrill of joy shoot through me. A feeling of pure happiness I hadn't felt since leaving my old life behind.

Mr. Beaver literally leapt with joy and ran down the embankment. I heard him yell for the Pevensies and they joined us.

"Merry Christmas, Sir!" Lucy said, and turned to her sister.

"I told you he was real." She said smugly.

"It certainly is, Lucy. Thanks to you."

"I thought there was no Christmas in Narnia?" Susan asked.

"There hasn't been for a hundred years. But, I've come at last. She has kept me out for a long time, but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch's magic is weakening." He said, and with that, threw his bag to the ground.

"Mr and Mrs. Beaver, forgive me, but I've already delivered your presents. Mr. Beaver, when you return home it shall be as you left it. I've made a few improvements. You're doing us a great service delivering these children to Aslan. Mrs. Beaver, you shall find I've replaced your sewing machine with a new one of the finest quality. Now. For you children."

He took Lucy's dagger and cordial out of his bag. The red leather shone in the midday sun.

"Lucy, Eve's Daughter. These are for you. The golden elixir of life. If you, or one of your friends are wounded, one drop of this elixir will restore them. And though I do not expect you to use it, this dagger will defend you when all else fails." He said.

'Well, I think I could be brave enough." Lucy said.

"It's not a matter of bravery child, you are all far too young to be in this battle, and battle is an ugly thing." He took Susan's bow out of his bag next, along with a quiver full of arrows and a small ivory horn.

"Eve's Daughter, Susan. Trust in this bow, for it does not easily miss."

"What happened to, 'battles are ugly affairs?"

He chuckled.

"And, though you don't seem to have trouble making yourself heard, this. When you put this horn to your lips and blow it, wherever you are, help will come."

"Thank you." She said. Then he took a gold hilted sword out along with a kite shield embossed with a deep red lion. The sword had a belt with it, and sheathed. The sword seemed forged just for him.

"And, Peter. These are tools, not toys. The time to use them may be soon at hand."

Then he took two final presents out of his bag. The first was a red sheath and sword belt trimmed in silver, the second was a small circular box. I opened the box, it was a compass that was currently pointed north.

"Tom, Son of Adam. You already have a sword that has answered it's call, but every sword must have a sheath for when it's not in battle and times of peace have come at least. Use Godric's blade well. The second, well young wizard, not everyone who wanders is lost. But even the best explorer needs a guide home once in awhile. That compass will point you back to the place you miss or the person you love the most. It shall guide you home, even when home seem worlds away." He said, and there was a knowing twinkle in his eye. I felt tears comes to my face unbidden, and I wiped them away. Then I fastened the belt around my chest. I took Godric's sword out of my pocket, and placed it in the sheath.

"Bare them well! I best be off, winter is almost over and things do pile up when you've been gone a hundred years. Long live Aslan!" He said, and jumped in his sleigh.

We waved him off.

Peter had a solemn look on his face.

"Did you hear what he said? Winter is almost over. You know what that means, no more ice!"

The river was nearly thawed when we got it. We were discussing how best to cross it.

"We should think about this." Susan said.

"We don't have time." Peter said, he was about to start walking across the ice.

"I was just trying to be realistic." She said.

"Peter, she has a point. We're Gryffindors, not suicidal." I said, cutting off his retort.

"Mr. Beaver, would you go first to test the ice?" I asked, and he nodded.

We had reached the center of the ice when we heard the howling. Soon, we were surrounded. One had pinned Mr. Beaver, another was growling at Susan. Peter had drawn his wand instead of that blade.

"Leave now while you can, and you're brother leaves with you." Maugrim snarled. One of the wolves made a leap at Lucy. Something happened then. There was a blur, and a yelp. Then the wolf was dead, an arrow between his eyes. Susan held her bow. There was a look of fear on her face. A look that was tempered by grim determination.

Maugrim leapt forward. A knockback jinx hit him, throwing him unto to the bank, and I used my own against the other wolf, who yelped and ran.

"Peter. Stab your sword into the ice. I've got a plan."

He did. Susan and Lucy grabbed ahold of him. I pointed my wand at the waterfall, and used a reducto to break it open. I had just enough time to twist my wand back into it's holster before we were swept away by the waterfall.

AN: Butterflies begin flapping. Next Chapter, Aslan. Peter earns his spurs. A wayward king is rescued. Reviews Make me Happy.


	15. Chapter 15

The gathering was like a renaissance fair come to life. The the sound of metalwork and sparring echoed. The air was filled with Magpies and Ravens bearing messages. It smelled like woodsmoke, cooking meat and the a underlying of note of something wild.

As we approached, the sounds ceased. The air was almost pregnant with a grave silence. A centaur approached us. These weren't like the centaur's that lived in the forbidden forest. This one was enormous. It had the body of clydesdale and all the upper torso to match.

"Why are they all staring at us?" Susan asked.

"Maybe they think you look funny." Lucy said. Peter smiled and I had to bite back a snort.

Peter pulled out his sword.

"We've come to see Aslan." There was a low growl that seemed to hum with power. The scent of a lion came over me. A great golden Lion walked through the crowd. He was enormous. He made the centaur seem small. I found myself going to my knees. A feeling of awe and terror me, and I had to swallow the lump that formed in my throat.

"Welcome Peter and Thomas, sons of Adam. Welcome Beavers. You have my thanks, but where is the fifth?" He said, his voice filled with concern and knowledge.

"That's why we are here, sir." Peter said.

"We had a little trouble along the way." Susan said.

"He's been captured by the White Witch." Peter said, and the crowd murmured in alarm.

"He betrayed them your Excellence!" Mr. Beaver said.

"Your Grace, I don't believe he knows what he does." I said.

"We believe he has fallen under her thrall. With all due respect, Edmund is not a traitor."

"He's betrayed us all!" The centaur bellowed. I was really starting to dislike Narnians.

"Peace, Oreius." Aslan said, addressing the centaur.

"Sir, he's our brother." Lucy said. She was close to tears.

"I know dear and that makes the betrayal all the worse. It may be harder than you think." Aslan said.

Aslan took Peter off for a chat, and I went to unpack the wizarding tent I'd brought along. I'd be damned if I spent another day without improper plumbing. I was almost done when I heard Susan's horn. I arrived just as Mulgrim leapt for Peter. Instead of his sword, Peter held out his wand. The wolf crashed into a protego and snarled. He lept again, and Peter hit him with a knockback jinx that slammed him into a tree.

"You think you're tough son of Adam, with your little magic tricks? My Queen will show you true power!" The wolf growled, and charged at Peter. Peter jabbed his wand, and he uttered two words I'd never thought I'd hear a Pevensie say. There was a rush of wind, and a flash of green light that struck the wolf. Maugrim died.

Aslan let the other wolf loose, and yelled.

"Follow him! He'll lead you to Edmund." The group of assembled Animals and Centaurs charged after the wolf and I ran after them. He lead us to their camp, and it was a smash and grab. We grabbed Edmund. I stunned the dwarf, and we fled the camp.

When we returned, Aslan was waiting for us. Well waiting for me.

"Walk with me, Tom." He said, and I nodded.

We wandered out of the camp, past the forges and the diurnal creatures bedding down for the night and up to the hill where he had his talk with Peter earlier.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I called you here, son of Adam." He said.

"You called me here? You're the reason why I was pulled from my world?" I said.

"No. There are things beyond even my power." He said with a growl.

"I was not the one who took ripped you from your bed and deposited you here. I merely saw an opening to help my own plans. You see, sometimes things happen that should not have. Sometimes there are stories written about children, and while they seem to have a happy ending, they are anything but."

"Are you talking about a certain novel, one involving Yourself, Her, and a Wardrobe?" I asked, and the He bobbed His head once.

"In one universe, a family is destroyed. A family that should have stayed strong and healthy. United together. All four children should have lived to a ripe old age, and only joined my country at the end of long lives. Instead all but one died in a tragic accident. An accident I want you help me to avert."

"Why not keep us here then? Let us deal with Her and then live out long lives here?"

"Because child, Narnia isn't like your earth. Narnia is a land of magic made manifest. To long here, and the senses can twist. Especially for those inclined to magic. The self preverts. Magic is power, but too much magic corrupts. To much magical power can rip a person to shreds. Tear their shade in two, and turn them into a dark version of themself."

"A niffin. We could turn into Niffins." I a said. He nodded. I sucked in a sharp breath of air. This was bad.

"Or something even more Beastly." He replied.

"So the rest of the books, will they happen as they were written?"

"Son of Adam, you of all people should know that all stories can be rewritten. Nothing is set in stone. If you can rewrite their story, I will reward you with a favor. Will you help me?"

"First, I want to know. Who or what is Jadis?"

"Jadis is a lady who ruined her own world in a vain effort to become a queen. She is a creature of cold and darkness, of air and deceit who has twisted my own world to her ends. She is a vengeful creature, and must be stopped."

"Her wand?" He raised His eyebrow.

"A tool, a powerful one, but a tool just like your own wand." I nodded.

"So, will you help me, Tom Marvolo Riddle?"

"Yes."

"Thrice asked and done then. Tom Riddle, we have a Deal." The lion said, and the air hummed with magic power.

AN: Review please. I feeds off them. One or two more chapters until the Battle of Beruna.


	16. Chapter 16

We ambled out of our tent.

"Mate, how many trunks do you have on you?" Peter asked. I had unshrunk all of them and had set them up in a neat little row in one of my tent's bedrooms.

"Enough. Repairing furniture is lucrative, and I like keeping my stuff with me" I replied.

Edmund had his talk his Aslan, and after warning us not to bring up Edmund's past, we had settled in for breakfast. Edmund acted like he hadn't had a proper meal in days, which was honestly the case.

"I have a gift for each of you." I said. I reached into my pocket and produced five small mirrors.

"These will allow us to talk to each other. Just say the person's name into the mirror and their face will appear. I call it a mirror phone." We were having fun playing with the mirrors while the girls talked to Edmund. He seemed tired. There were bags under his eyes, and he looked rough.

"Edmund, can I use a spell on you?" I asked, and he gave me a worried look.

"It's nothing really. It's just a spell that will reveal any magic placed on you. I want to make sure the witch doesn't have a way to track us." I said, and he nodded.

"Specialis Revelio." I said, waving my wand over him. There was a cloudy haze around him that meant a compulsion had been placed around him. It was slowly fading, which meant the spells effects would soon be gone. I knew only I could see the results of the spell, a finited it, and gave him a cheerful grin.

"Nothing. You're clean." I said, and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"You four need to pack." Peter said suddenly.

"What?"

"We're going home?" Susan asked.

"You are, I promised Mum I'd keep you three safe but there's no reason I can't stay  
and help.'

"But they need us, All five of us."

"Lucy, it's too dangerous. You almost drowned, Edmund was almost killed!" Peter said, giving me a look that begged me for help.

"Which is why we have to stay." Edmund said, the three of them gave him a look.

"I've seen what the White Witch can do and I've helped her do it, and we can't leave these people behind to suffer for it." Edmund said, and Lucy grabbed his hand, as if to make sure he wouldn't leave again.

"Peter, you're wrong if you think you staying will stop the witch from coming after us. I wouldn't leave you here by yourself anyways, but even if you lead His army into battle, and failed. The Witch will still come after us. We're still two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve. She'll still chase us. She might even find a way through the wardrobe if she were inclined. We're staying to fight." I said. Peter nodded.

"I guess that's it then." Susan said, and got up from the table.

"Where are you going?" Peter asked.

She picked up her bow.

"To get in some practice."

An hour or two later we were practicing. A dwarf was my fencing instructor, and he was thoroughly kicking my ass.

Suddenly, Mr. Beaver came running up.

"You better come quick. The Witch has requested a meeting with Aslan." We arrived just as they were carrying in her litter.

"You have a traitor in your midst, Aslan." Jadis said. There were gasps amongst the crowd

"His offence was not against you." Aslan replied. His voice was rough. There was deep threatening timbre that certainly wasn't there when I spoke to him the night before.

"Have you forgotten the Deep Magic?" Jadis said in a patronizing tone. Aslan let out a small roar that sounded like thunder rumbling in the distance.

"Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was made."  
"Then you will know that the boy belongs to me." She said, and turned to the crowd. Then she pointed her wand at Edmund. My own was in my hand in an instant, and I had it raised. Peter held his own aloft, and for a brief second I swore I heard a Phoenix song in my ear.  
"That boy will die on the stone table."

"Come and take him then." Peter said, his voice firm.

"You think that a simple threat will deny me my right, little king? Aslan knows that if I do not have blood the law demands, all of Narnia will be overturned, and perish, in fire and water."

"Jadis, I have but a question." I said.

"What is it that you want little wizard?" She asked.

"With all these wolves around you, and your beastly demeanor. Would you prefer us to call you the White Bitch instead of Witch?" I asked. Strangled laughter echoed through the crowd. She shook her head. A look of rage crossed her face.

"I have faced down wizards that would make you tremble, little wand wielder. They fell, as will you."

Aslan gave me a reproachful look, but one that was tinged with faint amusement.

"Enough, I shall talk with you alone." He said to the Witch. She followed him into his tent.

Some time passed, and they exited.

"The Witch has denounced her claim on Edmund." Aslan said, and the Witch made her way back to her litter. Cheers rang through the crowd. After she had settled on her litter, she looked at Aslan.

"How will I know your promise will be kept?" She asked. Aslan Roared. It was like the sound of thunder. The rush of that river breaking through it's icy prison. I had never heard something so exhilarating and terrified in all my life. It made a normal lion's roar sound like the mewling of a kitten. She fell backwards into her litter and practically fled our camp.

Later that night. I snuck out of camp. The girls were off to watch Aslan die. The boys were sound asleep, I had helped that along with just a touch of a wandless _somnus_ charm. It would instantly wear off if they were woken up, but I had my own mission. I slunk through the woods, following the trail we had taken earlier to rescue Edmund. The camp was mostly empty. Notice me nots and my disillusionment spells took care of the rest. I found the barrels of wine and water in their camp, and took six vials of the draught of living death, and draughts of peace, and sleepless night, and spiked the barrels of wine and water. Then I stole out of the camp and made my way back to ours. Halfway there, I felt Aslan die. A sharp stabbing pain ripped through my chest and forced the air out of my lungs. Maybe it was our deal, but something had tied me to the Lion. I went down to my knees and a sobbed ripped its way out of my throat. It was all I could do to stay conscious. I curled into the fetal position, and laid there for what must have been an hour. I stole back to camp and unshrunk my potions case. I downed a wit sharpening potion and a pepper-up. Then I went to work. I had a lot of preparation for tomorrow, and the battle was hours away.


	17. Chapter 17

Beruna was large, a massive green plain that emptied into a canyon. This was where the majority of our forces were.

The army in front of us was enormous, werewolves. Cyclops. Giants. I knew that the army facing the Narnians was big, in the movies it was tremendous. It had been diminished somewhat by the potions I'd slipped into their supplies. Which I was glad for. Peter has his shield and sword along with his wand. Godric's blade was on my hip. My wand was in my hand. I had added a crude leather pouch to the belt along with two holsters that held another surprise.

I knew what I had to do, the question was, was I powerful enough to use the spells that protected Hogwarts from myself almost fifty years from now? There was only way way to find out. I raised the visor of my armor. However. There was a second magic user here, and the spells didn't require much knowledge, just their incantations.

Peter turned to me. The centaur was on his left, but I was on his right.

"You're with me?" He asked, and I nodded.

"Until the very end." I said. It was time to begin enacting my plan.

"Peter, you're going to have to trust me."

"With?"

"What I'm about to do. Raise your wand, and repeat the spells I use. It's a set of shield charms I found while browsing the Restricted Section."  
"When did you go there?"

"Doesn't matter. Repeat after me."

"Fine."

" _Protego Maxima! Fianto Duri! Cave Inimicum!"_ I said, yew and phoenix raised high in the air. The spells shot out of my wand, and the air took on a faint shimmer.  
"Peter!"

"_Protego Maxima, Fianto Duri, Cave Inimicum!"_ He said, his own holly wand aloft. The shimmer intensified.

He looked at me.

"Together."

We repeated the spells a second time. Something odd happened then. Our wands, the cores must have reacted to each other. The spells flew aloft, and I heard the song of a Phoenix, the magic dome came alive, bright, and powerful and tinged in orange.

"_Take that Jadis, I'll show you magic." _I was still pissed about her sicking those wolves on me. On us.

"We hold here."

"What?"

"Order the archers to fire. Order the gryphons to drop their rocks. But hold our troops. Those enchantments will protect us against just about everything except Jadis herself. The less Narnian lives lost, the better."

He nodded. This battle wouldn't be like in the movies, which was a complete tactical nightmare. No. I'd introduced Narnia to proper warfare.

"Archers! Fire!" He said. Three hundred centaurs and fauns unleashed a volley of arrows, and the battle was joined. Fifty Gryphons, and Hippogriffs, each armed with a necklace enchanted by a shield charm and a disillusionment spell, unleashed rocks and boulders. It was tricky getting the spell to extend to the boulders that they'd drop, but I figured it out. Then a flock a eagles took off. There were only ten of them, but that's all I needed. Each eagle held a vial of eruphant fluid. They flew high above the battle. The larger flying creatures pulled back, and the smaller ones dropped their payload. Each vial hit, cutting a bloody explosive swath through the Witch's ranks. One almost hit her, and would have ended her, but she was saved by her own magic shield.

Dwarves, fauns and satyrs formed a shield line, while Centaurs held spears ready to impale anyone that broke through it. Peter and I were behind the shield line. Behind us, two rows of archers opened fire. With arrows that were dipped in basilisk venom. I loved Salazar. Behind the row of archers, our predators waited.

A hundred yards behind the shield line, the valley closed into the gorge. This was our second trap. We had two phoenix laying in wait for that moment, and nearly every archer we had atop the walls. When they entered the gorge. The the walls of the kill box would come down.

The enemy tried to charge through our enchantments, but the magic held. This only served to vaporize their front line. Eventually, I was certain Jadis would break through the enchantments. That much was certain. We just needed the spells to last until Aslan and the girls got here.

"Any Word from Su?" I asked. Enchanted mirrors kept us in communication with our fallback plan, and the girls.

"She said they're heading to the witches castle. Aslan somehow came back to life. They're going to save the prisoners trapped there.

Soon, the Witch traveled to front. She didn't use her wand. She made a clawing gesture with her hand and the shield spell exploded in shards of light. I grabbed my first surprise out of it's holster, and took careful aim, and fired. There was a thunderous bang and the first firearm in Narnian history went off. The makeshift flintlock worked. The bullet flew through the air, and hit the White Witch in the shoulder. I saw the pain on her face. Shame. I had aimed for her heart.

Her front line charged forward and the clash of steel on steel rang out. My pistol only regenerated ammo every thirty seconds. So I quickly unholstered my wand after placing the pistol back in it's pouch. Soon they had broken through our defensive line, and the archers put away their bows and drew their own weapons for hand to hand combat.

"For Narnia, and For Aslan!" Peter said, and we joined the fray. I struck with my wand. Diffindos. Reductors. Expelliarmus. Sectumsempra. Every spell I could employ I used. A centaur was decapitated by a minotaur. I set him on fire. A white tiger fell to my killing curse, and a werewolf died from an arrow of conjured mercury. We immediatly began falling back into the gorge. I sent out red sparks with my wand, praying they saw the signal and heard a horn blow in the distance. I felt an arrow bounce into my back, but it was stopped by the protego I had placed on my armor. There was a flash of light in my peripheral. I acted on instinct and forced my horse to dodge. Two leopards exploded into a shower of ice and blood. I looked around the battlefield. We had suffered our own losses. The gryphons were swooping in and carrying off dwarves and boogles and any other small creature the witch commanded they could get their talons into.

Quickly we reached the gorge. The Phoenixes worked their magic. Five dozen arrows were unleashed, peppering the witch's forces with arrows. I wandlessly accio'd my last bottle of eruphant fluid and threw it at her troops. An ogre caught the brunt of it. Shielding his queen. She struck with her wand and sword. Cutting a swath through our forces. Orieus the Centuar was turned to stone, and a gryphon exploded in mid run.

A reductor took down one her polar bears. Peter set the other aflame with incendio, and the witch jumped out of her chariot.

"Peter. Shield charms on my mark." I said, and he nodded.

I threw out a killing curse and She summoned a boulder to stop it. Then threw the boulder at me. I turned it to dust with a reducto. A lance of frost was stopped by Peter's shield spell.

"Expelliarmus!" I yelled. The spell struck true, and the Witch's wand was ripped out of her hand and flew into mine. I used a switching spell with some air in my extended pouch and made it vanish.

She looked pale. Paler than normal. There was a sheen of sweat on her face.

"You think the loss of my wand means anything to me, wizard?" She snarled. A ball of purple flame appeared in her hand and she threw it at me. I conjured my own shield spell and it was blocked. She ripped the shield apart and made a gesture with her hands. A wave of force shot towards me and impacted me.

I flew backwards and into the stone wall. She took a halting step forward and faltered.

"Probably not, but tell me Witch. What do you know of basilisk venom?"

She glared at me, and then a look of fear crossed her face.

"You think I simply shot you with a bit of iron? Have you been feeling steadily weaker? Has that wound been burning? You may kill me witch, but you've been dead since this battle began. Then something unexpected happened. I saw a flash of red and silver behind me and a sword sprouted from the Witch's chest. She turned. Edmund was standing there. With a dismissive gesture, she threw him to the side and summoned the blade from her chest. Then she charged me. I drew Godric's sword, and parried the blow.

"Reducto!" I heard Peter yell. One of the witch's kneecaps blew apart in a shower of bone and gore. Unbalanced by the loss of her leg, she fell. I kicked her backwards, and blew off her other leg.

Edmund ran up and took a look at the Witch. I handed him Godric's sword, and he nodded. With one clean swipe of the Sword of Gryffindor, the Witch lost her head and just like that, the Battle for Beruna was won.


	18. Chapter 18

THe coronation and resultant celebration lasted three days and three nights. On the third night, Aslan departed. On the fourth morning. Lucy woke us up. There was a loaf of bread in her hands along with a jar of honey.

"What do you mean they've all left?" Susan asked.

"They've gone home, Susan. I even saw Mr. Tumnus heading home early this morning."

"Why?"

"The winter is over. They have families to attend to I'd imagine."

"So, what do we do now?" She asked, and looked at me. They all looked at me.

"What?" I asked.

"Well, you were the one who helped the most in the battle." Peter said.

"Oh no. Edmund killed the Witch. He ended the battle."

"Only because you and Peter buggered up her legs, and you bloody poisoned her. You could have finished her off. Tom, you let me finish her."

I sighed.

"First things first. We need to restock the castle's food stores."

"How are we going to do that?"

I smiled.

"Lucy, lead me to the kitchens." She did. With a couple waves of our wand, Peter and I had the dishes washing and putting themselves away in the cupboards. The Castle's pantry was enormous. Our dorm at Hogwarts could easily fit inside of it. I took the food trunk out of my pocket, and unshrunk it. I used the unpacking spell to put everything up. The stasis spells on them would keep the food edible for nearly ever. In a few moments, the kitchen and larder were set to rights.

Then we wondered into the throne room. It was spacious and opulent. Now. If I was a king, where would I store my maps.

"What are we looking for?" Edmund asked.

"This was the Capital of Narnia before She took over the land, right?" All four of them nodded.

"It stands to reason that there's a room here in the castle with records and maps. We need to find this room. Then we use the maps to contact the different parts of Narnia. Figure out who their leaders are. Then you four are going to start ruling."

"Us?" Peter asked.

"Aslan didn't crown me king." I said. We searched for hours. It was Lucy who found the statue of the lion, and the secret entrance concealed beneath it. It was Susan who realized the lion's eyes were made of ruby, and they seemed odd in the room of silvers and blues that made up the decor of Cair Paravel's throne room. She pressed both of them, and a stairway descended.

I lit my wand and was down the stairs in a flash.

"It might just be the dungeons." Edmund murmured. We followed the stairs. Halfway down the steps a shimmering wall blocked our path.

I used the spell reveal charm, and it told me it was a simple shield spell.

"Finite incantatem." I said, and the shield vanished. We went down the stairs until we found a door. The door didn't have a keyhole. There was writing above it, along with a series of runes that were completely familiar to me but not something I could place. I tried the incantation reveal, and the was a shimmer in air in front of the door.

"Finite incantatem."

A plate above the door appeared, and the runes on the doorway glowed with golden light.. They had a strange tilt to them that I felt as though I really should recognize.

"To open me, speak friend and enter." Peter said, reading the inscription on the plate. I froze, and took another look at the runes. It clicked where I recognized them. What was going on?  
"Friend?" Peter said, and I shook my head.

I placed my hand on the door.

"Melon." I said, and the door swung open. There, on a dais, was a letter written in parchment, sealed by red wax with the crest of a snake wrapped around a lion.

I grabbed the letter, and felt the magic in the seal connect with me. The seal vanished.

Dear Past Me.

If you are reading this missive that means my Spell has worked.

Congratulations on winning your first battle. A victory, no matter how small, is still a victory. Remember that. Cherish the celebrations that come with them. Use those moments of joy, and hold them near when darkness seems to wrap around you.

Trust these four. You will find no greater allies. No truer friends. In regards to these companions, they are true and shall lead you throw all challenges you face. Bow to their expertise.

Like the lion says, stories are not set in stone. They can be changed. The future is malleable. Even sometimes a win will be a loss.

In this room, you shall find everything you need to rule the land you find yourself advising. Help your Kings and Queens. Even Arthur needed Merlin, and every bright day needs the dark of night.

In regards to other matters.

Respect your elders, but question what they say. Their actions, and there lack thereof are telling.

Cold waters may seem shallow, but they run deep and true.

Your time here may be limited, but it will be fruitful. I hope your research and understanding of magic multiplies.

Sincerely.

Future You.

"Who's the letter from Tom?"

"Myself. From the future."

"What? How?"

" I don't know." I said.

"How queer." Peter replied.

I looked around the room. There were shelves along three walls. These were filled with scrolls and books. On the forth, there was a large map. The map had different pins in it. It showed towns, and villages. The other castle, the one She reigned in. An ornate desk sat in the middle of the room. On top of the desk there were papers covered in a thin sheet of dust. A piece of toast, long since dried to nothing on a plate. A spilled tea cup. There was an open book on the desk.

"What is this place?" Lucy asked. Edmund began looking at the shelves, and I took a look at the book on the desk. The writing was done in quill, judging from the long dried ink pot.

It was open to one page.

I am writing this in hopes that someone will one day see this missive. I am Countess Shandon. Last of the line of Frank and Helen. My brethren are missing. Hags and Dwarves now inhabit their homes. The news of ill tidings sweeps through this land, and rumor of an unnatural cold is spreading. I've sent word to Archenland on the wings of our swiftest eagles. In the mouths of our fastest cats. I fear the reign of humans is done, and I and a meager guard are all that stand in Her way. Word says she is on the move, and will soon be at Cair Paravel, our last redoubt and what I fear to be our tomb. Were it not for the magician, we would have fallen already.

If you are reading this, and are human, I congratulate you son of Adam, or daughter of Eve. Congratulate you for winning a battle against a foe much darker than Narnia has ever seen.

If you are Her or One of Hers, then in the name of the Lion. I condemn you. May no house shelter your. May no hand feed you. May the clothes on your back be forever torn.

So says Countess Shandon formerly of the Lantern Waster, last of her line. Long may the Lion reign.

"These are the royal records." Edmund said.

"There's census data, trading records. Taxes. Deeds to property" He said, and for once he seemed excited.  
He opened a book, but it was in cramped handwriting you had to squint to read.

"I wish this handwriting was easier to read."

"May I see it?" I asked. Edmund nodded and handed the book to me.

"I'll be right back." I said, and hurried up the steps and into the room where we had been sleeping. I found the right trunk and shrunk it. Then I carried it back to the archive, and returned it to it's normal size.

I grabbed one of my typewriters, fed some paper into it, and then I linked the paper with one of the reams I had stored.

"_Transcribium." _I murmured, waving my hand over the book, and pointing my wand at the typewriter. It began clicking and clacking away at a rapid pace. The _infragilis_ charm would the keys didn't wear. The ink ribbon would never run dry. In a half hour's time, the book was halfway copied.

Then I looked at the map, and at the Pevensies.

"Tom, what are you thinking?"

"I think, Peter. It's time the Kings and Queens held their first court. Tell me Peter, do you know the Patronus charm?"

It took me a day to teach him, another day for him to learn a corporeal. Then a third to learn how to make it talk. My badger and his lion flew threw Narnia, delivering spectral missives. Along with these, a convocation of eagle's had taken up roost alongside a parliament of owls. Both flocks of birds claimed that once, they had been the messengers for the royal family. We reinstated them.

We sent letters and patroni to the Beavers of Beaver's dam. To the dryad and naiad. To every pack of wolf, to every coalition of cheetah. To the faun and dwarf tribes. Every sleuth of bear that would take our message. The leader's of the talking animals. The heads of the Centaur herds. Informing them that in two week's time the Royal Narnian Court would convene to discuss the affairs of the land now that the imposter Queen had been dealt with.

In those two weeks, summer had come full force to Narnia. We had settled into the Cair Paravel. My typewriters had transcribed and bound the archive. We'd settled into the Castle. I had visited the beavers, and reparo'd her old one. After which, I helped Mr. Tumnus repair his house. Then I had used the gold I'd brought with me to buy cloth off the dryads. It has a lush, comfortable material somewhere between cotton and silk. From this, extensive use of the sizing and coloring charms, I'd created wardrobes for us. Who knew a book on household spells would be useful?

Food was taken care by use of the herbivicus charm and a few of the seeds I'd taken. An adventure with a sea serpent later, and the merfolk were giving us regular deliveries of fish.

Soon, a gathering came, and the great hall filled with creatures, which quickly turned into a free for all. Complaints filled the air. A faun had run off with a naiad, and his lover had drowned him when he was caught looking at a male satyr. A dryad had lured a wolves into her tree grove and got them drunk off her honey, which I prayed was not a euphemism. The issues were endless.

We quickly ran through issues. Those who had fought in the battle and liked the thrill of it had taken to raiding creature's homes whose species were typically associated with the witch. An entire pack of werewolves had been crucified.

We established that peace had been found, but if those who wished to fight still wanted a sword in their hands, or loved the twang of a bow, an army could and would be formed. This brought to light the issue of the missing Narnian treasury. By all accounts, Narnia was financially prosperous during the first human reign. The White Witch hadn't suspended taxes on what little commerce went on in Narnia during the Winter. Our first objective was to figure out where those funds went. By all accounts, while some creatures had flocked to her side, a lot of her army, even the "dark" creatures, had been press-ganged.

She had almost been overthrown once, and that was why their was an entire battalion of petrified armed Narnians in her castle.

We had to mount an expedition into her castle, which had been largely abandoned.

We didn't know what hidden traps lay in wait, or if anyone thing "dark." had taken up residence. So our first trek into the castle was to make sure it was safe. We found the skeletons first.

No one had searched the dungeons, and Peter and I led a party. It was dark, and damp, and the smell of something rotten filled the air. There wasn't much light, but we found torches along the wall and lit them with quick incendios. We reached the end of the dungeons, and found a large wooden door that we broke through with reductos. The first cell we came to held a bundle of rags. In that bundle was a small skeleton. Two shoes, leather shoes, _human shoes_ made by a machine. Not by hand. I recognized what looked like cordoroy fabric and cotton, and a deep blue wool coat with plastic buttons. The hems of the coat looked like they'd been knawed on. Two finger bones were cleanly seperated from the hand, and there were small teeth marks on them.

One skeleton, this one was someone I had guessed was a teenager, had been tied spread eagle on a rack. It's ribs were broken. It's ankles destroyed.

Then, we found her lab. There were parts of human anatomy of all types. Of all ages, preserved in jars. We left the dungeons after that and sealed them shut behind us.

I had to fight back the urge to vomit. We found eight more skeletons like this. All small, all young. All far to tiny to be locked in a dungeon. If the witch appeared before me in that dungeon, I would have gladly crucio'd her right then and taken sweet joy in her screams.

We found the storerooms next, filled with bundles of fur. Beaver and mink. Rabit and squirell. Fox and tiger. All carefully preserved and wrapped in wax paper.

"Do you think these were Animals?" Peter asked. I shook my head, lied, and told him no. Eventually we stumbled into what looked like a study. There were ledgers, and Her own Map. List's of Animals and Beings who were held under suspicion. Lists of ones that had helped her, and openly defied her. How they had helped. When. She had kept meticulous records. Eventually we found her armory, and the treasury. These I shrunk into one of my trunks. I had begun emptying some of them and carefully organizing a library cum magical lab in one of the towers at our castle. I shrunk all of the weapons, and armor and bows. All the gold. Placed it into trunks. We moved her food stores. The various magical instruments she had gathered. Everything worth taking, we took. Then we used barrels of oil to coat that nightmare of a castle and burned it and blasted it until only a charred pile of rock remained. Thus ended our first month in Narnia.


	19. Chapter 19

Matters of finance dealt with. We turned our minds to other matters. Spring and Summer had come quickly to Narnia, with some difficulties. There were citizens now homeless because of rapid floods and that some of the rivers that had built their dens and warrens in were now rivers again. Peter and I spent two weeks flying from place to place. We quickly became masters of the the reparo charm. I figured out an excavation spell and taught Peter expansion charms. We quickly made sure our citizens had a roof under their heads and beds for their offspring. As we journeyed through Narnia, we came across collections of creatures that had been turned to stone here and there. Aslan had only free'd those in the courtyard. We employed a team of dwarves, paid a dryad for a gorgeous wagon she had sung from the trees, and gave the dwarves a team of dumb horses to go about Narnia and collect these statues. When I got around to setting up my greenhouse, I'd brew mandrake restorative to return them to normal.

A reward would be offered for any statues. After they were returned to life every effort would be made to find their families or relatives. I figured it was going to be months out before anything happened. Until Peter reminded me I had the witch's wand.

Part of her ability to turn creatures to stone must have been tied to that, because tapping them with it simply brought them back to life.

Then we drafted a new law. All creatures, beings, and animals who could talk. Who could think. Who could reason. They were henceforth a citizen of Narnia. Regardless of their status of werewolf, or leopard. Ogre or Owl. Any former soldier's in Her Army would be given clemency if they could prove that they were held under duress. Those who were found to be loyal to her. Well, Narnians are a bloodthirsty lot, and there were a few particularly savage fauns who agreed to be public executioners.

The Plains of Beruna had once been a grand market place. It was returning to such. Already a town of tents and pavilions was springing up, and commerce was booming. With a five percent cut to the Royal Narnian Treasury, of course. We hired another team of dwarves as accountants and to restart the royal mint. Then I stumbled into a great idea. Interest. In exchange for wonderful terms of repayment, and a small percentage on top, I hired another team of dwarves to began approaching the tradesguildes and various citizens with business to talk about small loans they could take out. For very favorable rates of course. Thus, the Royal Bank of Narnia was founded.

My next plan was quickly enacted. I found an old stone guard house on edge of Cair Paravel. From their I bought a fertilized egg from a Talking Hen and hired a talking Frog to sit on the egg until it hatched. That would still be months and months away. I ordered a small herd of cattle, chickens, and pigs under the guise of beginning a farm for the Castle.

Matters of state dealt with. We turned our minds to matters of Diplomacy. To Calormen. To Archenland. To Telmar. We sent Patronii informing them that the former Queen of Narnia was deposed. That once again, Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve reigned in Cair Paravel. That the borders of Narnia from the Lantern Waste to Cair Paravel to the Shining Eastern Sea were now and forevermore reinstated, and that we requested their presence for matters of Peace and Trade.

Archenland was easy to deal with. During the line of Frank and Helen, Narnia and Archenland were brothers in all but name. The witch had kept up that treaty. This was where the ham's from the beavers came from. Where a lot of our foodstuffs were imported from during her agricultural dark age. All paid for with the Lions and Trees that comprised the Narnian currency.

From them we learned that they too were enjoying a wonderful summer. That put some of my fears to rest. It stood to reason that Narnia had rushed into summer in an effort to catch the seasons up with the rest of the world. Like a clock trying to synchronize with another. We sent them away with a an adjusted trade agreement. Favorable terms for both sides, and a promise of mutual defense should either side go to war. They also agreed to send us shipbuilders and sailors. Narnia had once had a grand navy, and it was time for us to rebuild it. With a few improvements. Once I figured out how to properly cast cannons and shot. These, along with spells to expand cargo areas, and we'd have the greatest navy in the world.

Telmar was an interesting colony. They hated the Calmormen, and chafed under the fact that despite the fact they were a country. Albeit a country of mercenaries, that Calormen treated them like subjects instead of Allies. We agreed to help them find independance. In exchange for their economic policies to include a small percentage of all taxes were given to us.

The next delegation was the tough one. Calormen enjoyed lucrative trades with the Witch. In exchange for wine, and tea, and anything she basically wanted. She would send them slaves. Dwarves, the odd archenlander. Talking beasts. She sell them ice in great quantities, and furs enchanted to keep cool in the desert heat, or turn warm in the frigid night. Those she didn't torture or turn to stone, she sent to Calormen via a magical portal. In return she got gold. There was no shortage of Crescents in our new treasury.

They viewed the Pevensies with disdain. We were a bunch of children, and the Witch had always treated us favorably. These negotiations went on for days, and one of come to blows.

Until, under the cover of night, under disillusionment charm, I confunded the calormen noble. Then I imperio'd him to agree to our Trade Agreement. After which I obliviated him of the knowledge these events happened.

At the end of the week, he left. A new trade agreement in hand, and the promise to stop trying to take our people of slaves on his lips.

It was midsummer, and our reign was off to a wonderful start.


	20. Chapter 20

Summer was hot in Narnia. There was a wonderful breeze blowing in from the harbor. I was relaxing. There was to be a celebration tonight. The First Summer Solstice in a century. Faun players had come with lutes and pipes and all manner of musical instruments. Cooking meat and sizzling fat wafted through the air. For a change, I was reading fiction, well semi-fiction.

The first few fillory books were rather new publications. I was carefully going through the books and making annotations in the margins. The compass father christmas had given me was an interesting present. The message from my future self had been pretty self explantory. When I returned to England, it would be time to investigate the Four Founders. It was a blow to learn that the only person that knew everything about me was some form of traitor. These thoughts broke my concentration. I carefully marked my place in the book. Future me had also given myself? Himself? God, time travel already made my head hurt, a directive. The question was, what sort of time travel was at play. Was it a closed loop? Had everything already happened. Was the future me from another timeline? I wanted to know about the compass as well. That was two references to another world I'd received in as many weeks. A world that had me terrified.

I shook off those thoughts. Narnia was coming along nicely. In a few months, we had stabilized the country.

This gave me time for research. Well, mostly. We'd employed tutors from Telmar in swordplay, and archery and horsemanship. Along with these, we also got tutors for mathmatics, and reading. Various school subjects. Peter and I were studying magic according to lesson plans that I'd scrambled to come up with. I already knew all of theory in the books we had, and most of the spellwork. Potions were going to be challenging. I'd created a greenhouse carefully enchanted with weather control spells, but it would be awhile until the plants were ready, even with use of the _herbivicus_ charm. My basilisk was incubating nicely. Another few months and I'd have a baby danger noodle.

I'd sent a typewriter to each of the settlements. There was a room in Cair Paravel where each typewriters twin was stationed. This was manned by one of the court messengers. The eagles and owls had been reassigned. These typewriters were voice activated and controlled. The eagles and owls would man them, receiving messages from different Narnian towns and relaying the messages to us. Instantanteous communication was a boon. When I figured out how to network the mirrors instead of just pair them, I'd _really_ be making strides.

Our borders were secure for the most part. The border to Archenland was fine, but there were rumblings of Giants in the North.

The truce with Calormen had lasted all of a month. If they continued the saber rattling, I'd have to start with the brain rattling.

As I lazed about, I watched the dockworkers. A dock was being built. I had plans to meet with a centaur about building a forge. All in all, it was a good day.

The morning faded into afternoon, and then into evening, and the celebration began. I danced with fauns and satyrs and drank their wine. I could almost feel the joy and celebration coalescing in the air. Near midnight, as the moon rose, some of the Telmarines that had emmigrated in Narnia surprised us with a show.

Fireworks exploded in the air. As I watched the shells explode into color, a thought raced through my mind that instantly sobered me. Fireworks. They had fireworks! That meant they had _gunpowder!_ I let out a whoop of delight and danced with joy. The next morning, I gagged down a hangover potion and asked for a meeting with the Telmarine ambassador. I order ten crates of fireworks.

Summer faded into cool fall days filled with reports about harvests and preservation. Everyone was leery about the oncoming winter. There were granaries and places being built where salted meat and fish would be stored away. These, along with dried fruits, and thousands of gallons of juice of all flavors along with wine were being sealed in barrels. Peter and I spent nearly a week going from settlement to settlement to cast preservation spells while I gave lectures and handed out pamphlets about canning and to do it safely. There was some tinned food imported from Telmar and Archenland, but we wanted to keep Narnia self sufficient.

My basilisk was born on the cusp of fall turning into winter. A rat messenger informed one morning while Lucy, Susan and I were performing archery. King Peter and Edmund had been dispatched to a small village in the Lantern Waste to investigate a sighting of a strange cloaked figure lurking around the village.

When the rat informed us, we hurried down to the guardhouse. The toad had hopped aside. The egg cracked and a bright green basilisk about a foot long slithered out of the shell.

It's eyes were closed.

"_Greetings little snake."_ I hissed.

"_Speaker?" _It asked, to me it sounded like a male.

"_Yes."_

"_Are you my creator?" _He asked, and I replied affirmatively. This was the moment of truth.

"_Yes I am. Tell me youngling, can you talk. Not with the tongue of serpents, but another?"_ After a moment of careful consideration, the basilisk nodded with a cute little bob of his head.

"_Speak in that tongue for me._" I said, and the basilisk agreed.

He spoke alright. He spoke fluent chicken.

He let out a loud, proud crow. A textbook rooster's call.

He froze for a moment, as if in confusion, and then agony. When a basilisk hear's the call of a rooster, it doesn't just die. No. It exploded. Covering us in gore. The Frog ran away. Lucy instantly burst into tears. Susan fainted from being covered in the gore of a baby Animal. My mind screeched to a halt, and then I'll admit. I began crying too. For a few minutes, I wallowed. Then I scourgified the remains from the three of us, and rennervated Susan.

"Tom, what was that?!" She yelled, and smacked me hard on the shoulder.

"That, was a mistake."

"You had that poor snake kill itself!" She yelled. I launched into an explantation about basilisks and their properties. No Susan, I did not know that was going to happen. Next time I'll find a talking frog and not a talking chicken. Yes, I promise not to drag you here to watch another baby explode. We consoled Lucy, and then we went up to castle. Edmund and Peter were waiting for us. Evidently someone had told him we had gone to watch the basilisk hatch.

"Where's you snake, mate?" Peter asked, and Lucy burst into tears again. After calming her down, and explain what had happened, we asked about the figure.

"It was the queerest thing. It was a lady. She'd had this watch she kept checking. After we talked to her for a bit, she asked us where we were. She said she was lost. Then she just vanished." I raised an eyebrow.

"You're right, that is odd." Our discussion turned other matters of state and we wandered into the dining room for supper.

The cool fall days took on a chill, and soon the first natural snowfall covered the grounds. Our first year in Narnia ended with a celebration at Christmas.


	21. Chapter 21

**AN: Double update today**

I had to compel the Frog to sit on my next egg. This egg was from a regular hen. Winter had come to Narnia. With the beginning of winter, so ended our tutoring in combat. Peter and I still learned magic, but he was rapidly running close to the end of material that I had. This left time for me to look through the artifact's from the witch's house.

Her wand was powerful. A spell revealing charm, along with a material revealing, told me that the handle was silver. The core was an odd glass. Well, some sort of silicon composite. There was some sort of power stored in the wand. Any power measuring spells went haywire. Magic came easier with the wand, and I fashioned myself a second holster. My yew wand was now my backup, and I used the silver and glass for day to casting. After putting a glamour on it. There were only three people who knew what really happened that day in Beruna. Everyone thought that wand was burned along with Jadis' corpse. We let them believe that. I turned my personal studies to learning magic nonverbally. This took all of three months. I'd already slowly begun learning that before we left. WIthout other things occupying my time, it flew by. I was inclined to the mental arts as it was. My wandless banishing and summon skills had been honed by two years of self study on earth, and I had taught myself something faintly resembling telekinesis. Popper's book was hard to grasp. The finger movements were brutal, but I was using that knowledge to learn how to translate wanded spells into wandless. Wands were a crutch, and a liability.

My mirrors needed work. Anymore than three connections, and things started going haywire. I'd delved into the basics of arithmancy, and from that, higher level maths. Thank god I'd taken calculus and such in college. I needed to invent my own protean charm variant.

During the winter, I'd dug through my library and found a book about magical aptitude, and how to determine if a person had magical abilities. Lucy was definitely going to Hogwarts when we went back, and I began teaching her the first year's basics in theory. Edmund and Susan were not capable of using wands, but after hours of coaching them, I managed to get each of them to use an Utgarde prismatic spray. As soon as I developed a complete translation from wanded magic to wandless, I'd begin teaching the three of them some tricks. Not everything mind you. But a few things. A couple spells that were classed as battle magic. A shield or two. Lumos. The fire making spell.

She had other artifacts. A mirror that showed any location you named within a few hundred miles. Twin daggers that specialis revelio told me would kill anyone with a cut. A small buckler enchanted to reflect any magic back upon the caster. A bow carved from looked like bone with a jet black grip. A long black, jagged sword that was all angles with red accents. A bronze sphere with a red core resembling a ruby that I could feel power pour off of. A piece of purple quartz that felt like it contained _something_ and looked familiar. Books on Traveling. On Ways between Worlds. On entreating and endearing the Fae. A book on a ritual I read that involved nearly decades of ritualistic sacrifice and culminated with taking the life of ten newborn children on an altar made from the bones of their ancestors. When I read the final incantation, it hurt my eyes just to look at. It left me with a pounding migraine. The warnings said that the magic contained in the ritual would destroy the world upon which it was uttered. ai came to the conclusion that was the ritual for the Deplorable Word. A ritual so dark I nearly vomited from just reading. This book I burned and scattered the ashes high above Narnia. There were some spells, some paths to power were so damned and so dark, that I would never consider them. I found a book on Horcruxes that I locked away for further reading, and a book that was curiously titled _Hotel Spa Potions. _It jiggled something in my brain, but I put it away for further reading. The witch had been busy. There were entire tomes on magic, of both wandless and wanded. Books on binding the spirit to objects. On alchemy. On all sorts of magics. It would take me years to dig through these. I carefully categorized them and put the safe tomes in my library. I found scrolls written in odd languages. Books with the crest of two rams on them. Some hummed with power. Others felt wrong to my senses, like dipping my fingers in hot oil. Anything that seemed remotely dark, or of things not meant for humans, I placed in a strongly warded cellar.

I also managed to snag a few drops of Lucy's elixir. If it was really the famed Elixir of Life, I wanted to reverse engineer it. Immortality that didn't destroy the soul would be nice. A revealing charm showed me that it contained unicorn blood and hair. Bits of dragon blood and heartstring. Bezoar. Ingredients I'd never heard of. I put that on the back burner.

Winter continued on, and Narnia welcomed the following spring with joy. Everything was at peace. Then a rebellion happened.


	22. Chapter 22

**AN: This is the chapter where I might lose a few followers. I'm fine with this. I'm writing this fic primarily for my own enjoyment. Any readers who leave, well, don't let the door hit you. Thank you for reading this fic thus far. **

**Justin**

The message was delivered in the wee hours of the morning. An owl gave it to one of guards. I woke to pounding on my door and quickly threw on a robe and answered it.

"Lord Thomas, King Peter and Queen Susan have sent for you. There's an urgent message the dancing forest." The faun said. His face was red from exertion. Fearing the worst, I dressed in a simple tunic and breeches, and supple leather boots. Plain clothes for quick travel. All four Pevensies were waiting for me in the throne room with grim expressions on their face.

"There's been a dragon spotted above the dancing forest. It's touched down and set some Trees aflame. Naiads were able to put out the fire, but several Dryads died. A scouting party hasn't returned. They're calling on us to deal with it." I nodded, and brushed the sleep out of my eyes. Then I got a glass of black tea from a table that had been hastily set. I cooled the tea wandlessly and quaffed it down.

"When do we leave?"

"First light." Peter said. I nodded. I ran up to my room and quickly dressed in my hunting leathers. I'd have armor as well, but any degree of protection would be good. Godric's sword was waiting for me, already sheathed. My belt had come along for the ride, along with my holsters. My flintlocks gleamed. I put my belt on. I had made a few improvements to them. Then I went into the room where I'd stored my loot from the castle. The bow was quickly strung and went on my back. The daggers were sheathed and placed in my boots. I'd grab a quiver of arrows from the armory. Peter had already Packed a trunk for armor and shrunk it.

A quintet of armored gryphons were waiting for us. We mounted them, and took off for the dancing forest. While we flew I took a few hours from my quiver and a small carving knife. I engraved the broadheads with Isa, the Futhark rune, while engraving it, I murmured the spell for ice, _glacias_, over and over again and charged it with my magic. On the opposite side of the arrows, I carved the rune Thurisaz, my intent for that was a directed burst of energy, and murmured _reducto_ while I engraved it. This was a fairly new idea I'd come up with. Hopefully, the runes would combine in the way I wanted them, and upon hitting an enemy, explode into shards of ice. The gryphons were swift. We arrived at our destination an hour after departing Paravel. It was a small dwarven hut that we would use as a staging area for the extermination of the dragon. The local chapter of our military, maybe a dozen fauns and satyrs, along with three centaurs, and two werewolves, had already arrived and armored themselves accordingly.

We quickly donned our own armor. A centaur debriefed us.

"The dragon has made a roost in a grove not far from here. It attacks anyone that comes close. We think it might be nesting, but we are unsure."

"Has anyone tried negotiating with it?" Susan asked. She would be joining us for the confrantation. The only one who would be staying behind was Lucy, elixer in hand, ready to heal anyone who was injured.

"Anyone who approaches the dragon is instantly attacked. An Owl that tried to delivery the message was snapped out of the air and eaten whole."

"We'll send a patronus first, I'd would like to end this peacefully." Peter said. Honestly, I agreed with him. Dragons were tough bastards, although ones skin and blood would be useful. Heartsting made for good wands, and Lucy currently didn't have one. We'd tried my yew wand and it barely reacted to her.

"Me or you Peter?" I asked.

"I'll do it." He said, and I nodded.

"Expectro Patronum, Nontius!" He said, waving his wand. A regal lion appeared in thin air, and it bowed to Peter.

"I wish to send a message to the dragon of the dancing forest. I am High King Peter the Magnificent, High King of Narnia, Emperor of the Lone Islands. Lord of Cair Paravel. Knight of the Lion. I wish to speak with you regarding your continued inhabitation of this forest. Should you attack us, should you harm us, it will be responded to with swift and deadly force. So I do decree." He said, and made a slicing motion in the air with his wand. The lion departed. We waited a half an hour, and then left for the forest.

We walked into the forest, those of us with bows had arrows already notched on their strings. The grove we reached had been burned to cinders. In the center was a black dragon. Sharp spines grew from it's back. It's tail had a ball on the end that resembled a morningstar. The claws on it's front were deadly looking. My bow seemed to hum in my hands, as if it reacted to something in the dragon. It was roughly the size of two horse put together. I knew older dragons were much larger than this.

"Ah, the King has paid me a visit." The dragon said, in almost a purr.

"And it has brought morsels to feed me while we talk. I _do _love a freshly roasted centaur."

"Stop that." Peter said.

"What young King, has Narnia lost all sense of humor since losing it's queen?" The dragon chortled.

"She was never the true Queen of Narnia. She stole the throne from the heirs. I was crowned by Aslan himself."

"Ah, the great Lion. My father taught me much about Him before I left home."

"Where are you from, dragon? Why are you here?"

"Oh little king, I'm from a little bit of everywheres. A world far from here, but a world you may have heard of. I believe we're from the same place, in a manner of speaking. As for why I'm here. Well, my dear Uncle Sirio decided to send us out into the worlds. My home was getting to small. We have quite the infestation. Humans, so pesky. Imagine my surprise when I found out this delightful little _construct_ was currently without a ruler. I came here."

"I am the King here."

"Oh, you were little child. Until I came. You see, I am going to eat you." The dragon lunged then. I grabbed Peter backwards with a wandless summoning, and at the same time, unleashed an arrow from my bow. The enchanted arrow was off it's mark. Instead of hitting the dragon in his chest, it pierced a wing. The spells worked, and ice shredded the winged and peppered his side. He let out a growl of pain. It was chaos after that. A centuar charged forward with a pike. The dragon pounced on him like a cat on a mouse and ripped the centaur apart in front of us. Someone, I later learned it was Susan, shot the dragon in the eye. I dropped my bow, and drew one of my pistols. I aimed and fire. Midair, the bullet expanded from the size of a large BB to the size of a softball, catching the dragon in the side. Elicting a roar of pain.

Two fauns were brunt to a crisp. A dwarf was eaten whole. Another one of the centaurs died from the swing of a dragon's tail. Peter threw out reductos that splashed against the dragon's skin innefectually. I took aim and shot the dragon. This one missed. I found my bow, took careful aim, and unleashed another one of my ice arrows. The dragon caught this one alight. I wandlessly banished a boulder at it, thunking it hard on the head, breaking one of it's horns.

It had managed to get Peter in his grasp and knock him to the ground. I threw every bit of power I could into a reducto, and I destroyed his other wing.

"Hey! Ugly!" I shouted, and the dragon turned to me.

"Yeah you!" He growled, and Peter used the momentary distraction to scramble away from the fight.

"You don't look too imposing without your wings." I said, and the dragon glared at me.

I threw another spell at the dragon, a cutting spell. This one was wildly overpowered, and managed to cut a gouge in the dragon's leg.

"I've seen garden snakes with loss ferocity than you. Hell, the Witch was scarier than you'll ever be!"

"You dare compare to that imposter, son of Adam?" The dragon shouted, and barreled at me. It hit me like a ton of bricks and I fell backwards unto my ass.

The dragon brought one of his feet down, and I felt something crunch in my left leg. I fought back a scream of pain. He pressed down on my chest, almost tauntingly. I felt something in my chest and back crack. That time I screamed.

He bore down on me, opening his jaws wide. I brought up my hand, and threw every last bit of magic I could into a reducto, aiming for the roof of his mouth. The dragon's head exploded. Before falling unconcious, I heard the clank of metal armor as someone ran towards me.

I awoke later, groggy and unsure of my surroundings. Peter was sitting by my bed. He had stripped out of his armor.

"Where am I? The dragon?" I muttered groggily.  
"You're in the hut in the dancing forest." Peter said.

"What about the dragon?"

"The dragon is dead. You killed it." He said, I nodded reluctantly. The memories coming back.

"So, I'm alive?" I asked. Peter chuckled.

"No thanks to your own stupidity you git." I heard a shrill voice, and Susan was standing there.

"Su!" Peter said.

"Don't "Su" me, Peter!"

"Were it not for Lucy's Elixer, you would have died. You moron."  
"I was saving Peter's life!" I said. I felt fine.

"You had saved Peter's life when you distracted the dragon. Anything after that was you playing hero!"

"What does it matter if I live or die?" I asked.

"What do you mean, of course it matters."

"No, not really. Peter is the High King. If we ever go back to England, you four have a mother and father waiting for you. Who am I? Just another orphan?" I said, and got out of the bed.

"If I were to die here, it would be a tragedy. But you four have family, have people waiting for you. I don't have anyone." I said. I felt a hand hit my face suddenly. It wasn't Susan that hit me, but Peter.

"You have us you stupid git." He said.

"Edmund and Lucy look up to you like an older brother. Susan, well how many times have you two shared a cup of tea and gossiped like two old hens. You two are best friends. And I. Well, I." He grew red in the face suddenly, and stormed out.

"What was that about?" I asked, and Susan gave me a look as if I knew very well what that was about.

"Honestly, boys. Daft, the lot of them." She muttered, and made to leave.

"Wait, Su." I said, and she stopped.

"The dragon, what did they do with the corpse?"

"Peter knew that you'd probably like to examine it. It's under guard." She said. I nodded and she left. Then I went to find Peter.

He was in his own room. The hut was more of a small manor house. He was furiously polishing his armor. He had an air of frustration about him.

"Hi." I said.

"Hello." He replied gruffly.

"Are we leaving soon?" I asked.

"I've sent a patronus to the Castle. I figured you'd need a wagon to cart your newest experiments back. I wasn't sure how the magic would react to expanded trunks. They'll be here in a day or so. The roads are muddy." He replied, and I nodded.

"Look about earlier."

"Tom, it's fine."  
"No, Peter it's not. I was a bit of an arse."  
"Of course you were, you're Tom. If you weren't an arse, I'd think you'd been replaced."

"Look, I'm sorry. I-" He cut me off.

"Tom, that day. Before the battle. Do you remember what I asked you?"  
"If I was with you?" I asked and he nodded.

"Do you remember what you replied?" He said, his voice was husky, and there were tears in his eyes.

"Until the very end." I said, and he nodded.

"Did you mean it?"

"I've meant it since the day we told off Malfoy and Black on our way out of the Great Hall. I will always mean that."

"I needed to hear that." Peter said, and leaned in and kissed me hard on the lips. We stayed like that for a moment. When we came back up for air, Susan was leaning against the doorpost. There was a smirk on her face.

"About time." She said, and walked off.

We both blushed. Then I finished helping him pack his belongings. We went to the clearing where the dragon had been slain. After carefully dissecting the dragon side by side, we loaded up the trunks, placed them under stasis spells and loaded them unto the wagons. Then we rode back home.


	23. Chapter 23

The tour of the first island was nice, it was a banana plantation, small and unassuming. We collected our taxes from them, and moved unto to Narrow Haven.

Narrow Haven looked as though we'd walked unto the set of a pirate movie. We wore cloaks into town, to avoid undue attention. Underneath these cloaks, we wore our finest garb. The town smelled like booze and sewage, and I resolved to make plumbing my next invention.

The town was quiet for a weekend, but we heard noise coming from further into the town. There, in the town center a platform had been erected. An auctioneer stood on a podium. Behind in him chains, there were nearly three dozen people, and a few talking animals.

I heard Susan's sharp gasp of breath. I felt a surge of anger course through me. Narrow Haven gave us decent tax revenue, far to large for a town with no viable imports or exports really. This was why.

"Peter, this has the be stopped." Susan said in a harsh whisper. He nodded, and made his way to the front of the crowd, we were quick on his heels. He reached the front of the crowd, jumped up on stage. A murmur of shock went through seated crowd.

"Enough!" He said, he had applied a sonorus charm. He pulled down the hood of his cloak, and dropped the garment to the ground, the royal livery was evident for all.

"I am High King Peter, Emperor of these Islands. I declare these proceeding to be ended. These people shall be free. Slavery illegal by Royal Decree of King Frank the First. What is this?" He yelled.

"Now see hear boy!" The auctioneer yelled. Two guards came from the rear of the crowd.

Susan dropped her own cloak, and had her bow out and notched in a flash. I dropped my own, and drew my wand.

"I am your Queen, and so help me, if you take one step towards here, I will declare it treason." She barked. The guards stopped.

"Your majesty, I'm sure there's been a misunderstanding. Narrow Haven has followed this tradition for centuries." A man in the crowd stood. He was dressed in fine clothes. His skin was dark, and his beard had been greased to a fine point. He had two of his own guards.

"Surely, we can come to an honorable conclusion instead of bickering like children." He said, his tone the opposite of his wards.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am Lord Radaban, of Calormen, Third in Line for the seat of the most high, most worshipped Tisroc. Who might you be?" He retorted.

"I am Lord Thomas the Selfless. Dragon Slayer, and Grandmaster of his Majesty's Royal Magicians. " A title the Narnians had given to me after I saved their king from a dragon, and a title I'd given myself. What? I wanted a fancy title, okay? I even had a fancy little placard above my door at the castle.

"Kings and Queens you may be, but I see before myself three children playing dress up. Now, come down from their little royals. The adults have business to attend to."

"The business for today is over. These people will return to our ship with us. You will end the slave trade here. No more slaves will be brought before this place."

The auctioneer looked pale. Okay, Peter. You used the stick. Now I'm going to use the carrot.

"Auctioneer, tell me, are these all the slaves that are currently in Narrow Haven?" He nodded.

"Very well, and tell me, how much are these slaves worth. Today, if you were to sell all of them, how much revenue would you have received. How much gold would be in your coffers tonight?"

"Nearly six hundred gold." I took a pouch off my belt. It was expanded, and held almost a thousand coins of mixed crescents, galleons, and lions.

"Then, Auctioneer, take this pouch of gold. You will find that there is far above the sum you stated to me. Take the remainder as a bonus if you will, for helping to end the slave trade on this wonderful island." He nodded. We'd have room aboard the Splendor Hyaline. It was a galleon with expanded rooms. A few gemino'd bunks, and there would be enough beds for each of them there.

I turned to my newly purchased slaves, and with a wave of my hand, vanished the chains that held them.

"I free you from your chains, and I offer you passage to the west. To Narnia." I said. I went to one knee in front of the slave.

"I beg you clemency for the way our kingdom has treated you, and ask your forgiveness."

"No forgiveness needed, Milord." A great rumbling bear said.

"Pray, bear, what is your name?"

"Bruno, Sire." A bear named Bruno. Lovely.

"Would like like to accompany us back to Cair Paravel?"

"Sire, I have not seen Narnia since I was but a cub. It would be my honor."

"Then come Bruno, let us depart." I walked off the stage. The rest of the freed slaves followed.

Back aboard the Splendor, after making sure our new constituents had a bed and food for the night, Peter and I returned to our quarters for dinner. Susan accompanied us. It was nearly dark, and spelled lanterns light the interior. We were docked just off of Narrow Haven.

"Must you always show off?" She said with a teasing grin.

"I wasn't showing off!" I said.

"Oh, you absolutely were. The wandless magic was a nice touch." Peter said.

"You're supposed to be on my side!" I retorted.

"No, I'm the High King. I'm above taking sides. I remain neutral in all matters." He replied, his face had a haughty look on it that quickly dissolved into a grin. Susan and I both threw our napkins at him.

That was when a bell rang up top. We exchanged worried glances and went to the top deck.

Orieus the centaur was waiting for us. Another ship had pulled alongside us. Something was up.

"Orieus, send a runner. Inform our friends below deck they may be needed." Orieus nodded, and he sent one of the powder monkeys on their way. No, literal powder monkeys. We'd picked up a barrel of talking capuchins somewhere. I had quickly trained them to operate the cannons.

"King Peter, another ship has sailed up alongside us on the other side. They're lanterns aren't lit. We wouldn't have known, except for a warning from the mermaid who accompanied us." Peter nodded to me, and I disillusioned myself.

"Hello, Royals of Narnia!" A voice rang out, We could see a face peering out from the lanterns of the other ship. It was the Calormen noble from earlier.

"Hello Noble from Calormen!" Peter called out.

"I was wondering, if we could do some business. May I come aboard?" Peter hesitated for a minute, and nodded. He expanded his gangplank. We extended ours. He crossed it and came aboard. I made eye contact with him, and began rifling through his thoughts.

"Now, you see, those slaves that your lord purchased earlier. I'd been sent to purchase on in particular. The Tisroc wants a dancing talking bear for his daughter. I'd been sent to purchase him. I was hoping that I could convince you to part with him. As I understand, you have a young girl in residence at Cair Paravel, your sister, Lucy."

"Yes, Queen Lucy is quite young." Susan said.

"Then you understand, young girls are notoriously hard to please, and the Tisroc's daughter is spoiled to boot. I need that bear. I'm willing to offer you twice what you paid for the entirety of the slaves combined for that one animal."

"My sister would understand that an Animal, a smart Animal, not a dumb beast, is their own person. Not some sideshow for her enjoyment." Susan said.

"It's just an animal your majesty. I want to buy it. Now, what is your price." The Tisroc said.

"Our citizens are not for sale." Peter said, there was steel in his voice.

"Boy, just sell me the animal."

"Sir, I'm asking you to leave." Peter said.

"Fine, King. But you will regret this." He said, and left.

He immediately spoke.

"Tom?"

"He's going to attack. Get as many protego maximas up as you can." I said, I was already on the run to the other side of the _Splendor. _Both my wands were out.

"Protego Maxima! Protego Maxima!" I ran along the side of the ship, layering the spells.

I returned to the center of the ship. Peter had returned. I saw the first fiery arrows launch from the Calormen ship. These hit our shields ineffectual. I pulled a charmed mirror out of my pocket. This one was twined to one below decks.

"Fire the cannons, port and starboards." I told, the monkey screeched out a command, and the air filled with the booms of cannons and nearly instantly later, the sounds of splintering wood and the screams of dying, confused men. I could see blooms of flame and spell fire in the distance. You see, when my arrows proved to be a success, I'd added the engravings to cannonballs. I'd enchanted them with fire and explosion spells.

"Reload and fire again. Keep firing until those ships are sunk, or we run out of shot." I told the chief gunner. The monkey saluted once, and the connection was ended.

Our archers hastily assembled on deck, and our two court mages that had accompanied us, a werewolf and a hag, joined Peter, Susan and I with along with the rest of our archers in taking potshots at the opposing archers. Soon, the two ships were sunk. We posted a watch, and retired below to our quarters for a few restless hours of slumber before we departed the next morning.

The next morning, a calormen rowboat met us waving a white flag.

"Lord Rabadan requests a meeting of truce on the island!" The midship man called out. We conferred for a moment, and agreed to a truce.

We boarded a longboat. Orieus, and both our mages joined us. I left a few safeguards aboard our ship. We met near the docks. The Calormen Lord had brought three of his own men.

"What truce do you want, Lord?" Peter said, a haughty arrogance in his tone.

"You should be asking me terms. You destroyed two of my ships, and killed thirty of my men. I want recompense for that."

"You attacked us!" Peter said.

"You were hostile towards me. This is just a barbarian plot to sour our further relations."

"Sir, you are in violation of the treaty signed just this past year between Calormen and Narnia. You attempted grave harm upon us. We retaliated."

"With magic. You're no better than that Witch that ruled before you. At least she was forward about her intentions. You even kept her kind around." He said, with a derisive sneer towards the werewolf and hag.

"They were found innocent of all wrongdoing. You're over reaching." Peter said.

"And you're making me reach the end of my patience. I want remuneration from you. I think that galleon, along with the slaves you purchased will be sufficed."

"Over my dead body." I chimed in.

"That can be arranged." Rabadan replied.

"I believe we've reached an end to this discussion." Peter said.

"Yes, I believe we have." Rabadan said.

"Kill them." He said, and twenty mages shimmered into existence. He walked through his guards, and they attacked.

I raised a protego maxima that shattered instantly with the onslaught of twenty spells hitting against it. Susan drew her bow, and let an enchanted arrow fly, aiming for Lord Rabadash. A shield spell from the enemy stopped the arrow from hitting it's mark. The arrow still exploded into a blossom of flame that caught one mage alight. A blade of magic come coursing towards me, and I blocked with one wand, drawing my flintlock, taking aim and firing. A _reducto_ enhanced round blew through the mage's shield and hit the calormen in the chest. Bits of gore and bone flew through the air. An arrow flew from an archer and hit Susan in the shoulder. She grunted in pain, and dropped her bow. Instead she made a slicing motion her hand, and another mage fell. She drew her own flintlock and I learned she was as deadly with a gun as she was with a bow.

Our werewolf fell to an arrow of conjured silver, and the air filled with the smell of singed fur and cooking skin.

I lance of flame caught my shirt on fire, and I used aguamenti to put it out before it consumed me. Peter had drawn his sword and he and Oreius were dueling the two swordsmen Rabadash had with him. The hag took down two mages before dying of spectacular curse that made her burn to ash in front of us. I blocked a spectral sword thrown my way and opened fire again, this one missed, and hit a building, which exploded. The sounds of screams had filled the air.

I dodged another spell, rolling across the sand of the beach we were on. Two mages began casting spells of lightning and fire at me. I doused the fire spell with water, and raised a wall of sand to stop the lighting. It turned it to glass. I shattered it with a reducto, and then used sent the shards flying at my attackers with a silent oppugno. This skewered one attacker. I threw out a confringo followed by a diffindo. The confringo was deflected by my opponent, and flew into some barrels that exploded, showering the area with burning pitch. This fire quickly began spreading. The diffindo split them in two vertically. I raised a shield spell just in time to stop a spectral barrage of arrows from turning me into a pin cushion.

Peter and Oreius had killed the swordsmen, and Susan had dealt with the archers. We regrouped. We were outnumbered. I raised a shield, and it was quickly destroyed. A lance of air flew towards Peter and I knocked him to the side wandlessly. It grazed him, and blood began coursing down the side of his head.

"Go you three." Orieus said.

"What?"  
"Get back to the boats. I shall guard the way. He drew his own bow. I had made my enchanted arrows common among the royal guard. He took aim, and killed two enemy mages with a fire arrow.

"Orieus."  
"Go!" He yelled. We ran. As we got in the boat, Peter and I animated it to row. I saw Orieus die. His head separate from his body, and his blood fountain upward. I saw one of the Calormen mages smirk in triumph.

"Avada Kedavra!" I yelled, the green light of the killing curse soared out from the witch's wand, and the spell hit the enemy spellcaster directly between the eyes. Peter and I took turns blocking their spells as we retreated. We sailed home with all haste. I patched the three of us up as best we could. Then I set patronus messages to Lucy. She was the only Royal at Cair Paravel. I gave her instructions to have the rest of our mages ready for battle, and to have our boats launch. They were all provisioned. I'd overseen that myself, and ensured the stasis spells would last for months. They met us halfway and we returned to the Lone Islands. Lucy used her elixir to finish healing our wounds. Peter would always have a scar on the side of his head from whatever spell the enemy mage had.

Calormen must have been making plans for sometime, because a blockade was waiting for us. I cursed myself for not figuring out mortars yet. We discussed our plans with Lucy and all of us retired to the rooms aboard the _Splendor_. The next morning, Lucy didn't get up to meet with us for breakfast, and we checked her quarters. There was a note and a lock of her hair informing us to meet them on the island.

We came in force.

Lord Rabadash met us. He had his mages, and reinforcements. Nearly two squads of swordsmen. Some of their blades shimmered with magic.

"Now, were we?" He said.

"Ah yes, remuneration."

"We'll give you the bear if you give us back our sister." Peter said.

"Oh, no, little king. You see, my price has increased. I don't want that stupid bear anymore. No. I want these islands."

"What?" Peter asked. He produced a scroll of paper and handed it to Peter.

"Henceforth, the Lone Islands shall be the sole property of Calormen. The throne of Narnia shall revoke all claim to these islands. No emissary from Narnia shall visit them, all trade agreements between Calormen and Narnia are hereby revoked. All treaties between the two nations are henceforth declared null and void."

"I can't agree to this." Peter said.

Rabadash lazily snapped his fingers. A calormen mage appeared in a puff of smoke, and pushed Lucy into Rabadash's arms. He grabbed her in a tight grip, and pulled her close to him. She dug her nails into his skin and he growled in pain. Then she bit his hand hard, drawing blood. He yanked her mouth off his hand, and he drew a dagger, forcing her to knees. He held the dagger to her throat.

"Sign it, now, or I'll cut the little chits throat." He yelled, an undercurrent of pain and and rage his voice.

I handed Peter a fountain pen. He took it, and signed the scroll.

"Good, you have until nightfall to leave the islands." He said, turning our back to him.

"Before you go, I do have something that belongs to you." He said, and picked up a sack that was laying on the ground. He tossed it to me. I opened it. Inside was the head of Oreius the Centaur.

"I'd offer you the body, but my alchemists are practically salivating over it."

We left. We returned to the ship, and Lucy hurried to the dining room and grabbed the first plate she saw. She spat out a wad of blood.

"Tom, my nails." She said, and I realized she had gotten some of his skin under them.

I carefully summoned the skin, and separated her spit from his blood. I placed them both in separate vials.

"You clever girl." I said, shaking my head in amusement. I'd warned the Pevensies that someone with access to their blood and skin could do terrible things with it.

"Do with that what you will." She said.

"Lucy!" Susan admonished, and Lucy turned to Susan.

"They kept me locked in a room, all night. In the dark. With only Oreius' head to keep me company. They gave me breakfast, and after I'd eaten it, told me it was _him!"_ She yelled.

"I want that _bastard_ to suffer!" She screeched. I nodded. I'd make sure of it.

When we returned to Cair Paravel, I went to the cellar and found a book the witch had on thaumaturgy.

I made a doll out of a piece of fabric carefully wrapped around a bit of straw and Rabadash's skin. The I dipped the doll in the blood.

I waved her wand over the doll.

"Like to like, I tie to thee. Like to like, I bind to thee. Like to like, I merge with thee." I said. I felt the magic tie to the doll.

On that doll I cast a few curses. An impotence hex. An incontinence curse. Then I soaked the poppet into a vile of the draught of despair. Finally, cast a delayed spell on the it. The spell was old, and from one of her books. It was called the curse of feeble decay. Over time, in five years, or ten, Rabadash would slowly die from organ failure, culminating in him going into hemorrhagic shock and bleeding to death slowly through all of his orifices. He may have one the Lone Islands back, but he would pay with his life.

The next morning, I gave the order for mass production of flintlock pistols for the royal guard, and started drafting plans for muskets. Then I began trying to figure out how to build a mortar.


	24. Chapter 24

Five years flew by swiftly. Narnia, aside from the loss of the Islands, was prospering. I'd reinvented the printing press, and we'd introduced education. Our trade agreements with Archenland were stronger than ever thanks to my perfection of mirror portal. Calormen remained a threat to the South, and we had more than one sortie with them. Our naval forces were strong, and I'd commisioned a series of watch towers along our coastal borders. These were armed with enchanted ballistae, and there was a runic activation panel. When one of these were tripped, each watchtower would go active and automatically seek out ships without a certain sigil carved into its bow. It would also activate a Fianto Duri, Cave Inimicum, Protego Maxima spell wall. This spell wall would spread around the castle via runic pathways I'd carved into statues lining the perimeter. Should we be attacked, the castle would be protected. This, along with the basilisk, and a few other surprises, had turned Cair Paravel into a fortress.

I'd introduced a new revenue stream to the royal coffers. Susan and I had _finally _figured out multimirror communication, and soon the Narnian Royal Messages was up and running. For a monthly fee of a couple of trees, you could have your own mirror that would allow you to communicate up to any distance. They were all the rage in Archenland.

During breakfast early one spring morning. Edmund had an annoucement.

"I've asked Harpina to marry me." He said, that was the name of the river naiad he had taken a liking to. I narrowly avoided spitting out a mouthful of tea.

"Edmund, what?" Lucy said. Closing her book on healing magic she'd pilfered from my library. It wasn't quite my library any more. It was more of all five of ours. Susan kept a list of who had what book. Lucy tended to prefer books on healing magic. Edmund was an avid reader about wards and magical defenses. Susan knew most of the texts about battle magic by heart. We all knew most of all of the books, and could recite them chapter and verse. occulmency was useful for that.

"Can you even marry her?" Peter asked.

"What do you mean?" Edmund replied.

"Well, she's made of water. How would you two, you know?" He made a obscene gesture with both his hands.

"Goodness Peter, must you be so crass? At breakfast no less." Susan muttered. I knew she was mostly joking. Mostly. Caduceus chose this moment to slyther inside. The basilisk usually came and went as he pleased. Fortunately, we'd learned that a basilisk could control it's gaze.

"Boop?" He said, normally, nudging me on the leg, almost knocking me from my chair. He was nearly ten feet long at this point and weighed almost twenty stone.

I regretted teaching him that phrase, again, and patted him on the head.

"Well they can become human after all! She just has to go in the water ever so often. And honestly, you four haven't much room to talk. Susan, must I remind you about the time I caught you with a faun, and a satyr?" She blushed and pretended the incident never happened. Solstices had a habit of getting a bit out of hand.

"And Pete, you and Tom have been together for _ages. _As have Harpina and I. Besides I don't have much choice in the matter." Then he muttered something under his breath none of us quite caught.

"What was that?" Lucy asked.

"I said she's pregnant! Okay!" He said, and his face was redder than the castle livery.

Lucy let out a scream of joy.

"A baby! Oh, I haven't seen a baby in ages! I'll have a little nephew!" She said, beaming. Susan smiled.

"Oh, that's so cute. Our little baby brother is all grown up." I demurred. He shot me a look, and Peter clapped him on the back in congratulations. We concluded breakfast and went out unto to castle grounds. For once, there was no buisness to attend to. We'd spend the day either mock dueling, we'd both become proficient with nonverbal and wandless magic. After that Peter would usually go horseback riding, or to the potion's lab I'd set up in the greenhouse. I'd go to my forge or my spellcrafting lab. Or I'd played fetch with Cad.

Lucy was the one who had taught him that game, and it wasn't unusual to see her and Cad running around the grounds with each other. She had made noises about wanting her own basilisk. All four of us put our foot down. Cad ate a lot. He went through nearly a cow a week. We already worked out a breeding program for cattle, because we figured that would increase as he got older.

I trooped into my study. The room was a tower above the castle, that was locked to my blood. This room contained every spell and artifact I was currently working on creating or enchanting. An expanded bookshelf held typewritten copies of all the books I'd collected since arriving in Narnia. The books in the library were the same. The actual tomes were hidden away in the cellar, which had become a magical armory of sorts. A large mirror was mounted on one wall. My own personal portal. A small potions work area sat alongside it.

Currently I was working on quivers. I'd refined the enchantments placed on our arrows, but I wanted to figure out a way to make a quiver bottomless. I could do that with normal arrows, but enchanted arrows, especially those with a reducto on them, reacted explosively. There was a reaction between the gemino charm and the reducto that made things go boom. If I could figure this out, then I could move unto my next idea. Making the arrows duplicated in midflight. When I worked that out, an archer could fire an arrow that would split in mid air into two or four.

I'd worked through the arithmancy equations, and nothing was wrong with my math. So, I knew it had to be the process of applying the charms. I put that away. Then I turned to my other project.

Reverse engineering the Elixer was a passion of mine. I'd finally figured out some of the ingredients. How ever, since Narnia seemed to have distinct lack of firecrabs, and veela, and _kneazles _of all things. Once again, the Elixer was on the back burner. I moved on from that to the next magical weapon I was creating. This was a gauntlet, that when worn, had a battery of spells inside of it. This was a crutch for wandless magic users, but had plans to one day creating a suit of magical body armor. I was working on it piecemeal. Originally I wanted to make an airship, but the runic arrays for that were just to complicated. I was going to settle for a suit of flying armor.

/

Warning: Fluff

/

Peter came into my study, he was still dressed in his riding leathers. He had a thoughtful look on his face.

"What's the matter, love?" I asked.

"I was thinking. Edmund is getting married."

"Yes. He said that at breakfast."

"And, I was thinking. Everyone knows that you and I are well together. Why don't we get married?"  
My mind screeched to a halt.

"What?"

"We should get married."

"Peter, you know I'm married to my research."

"Oh, I understand that. But there have been rumblings about producing an heir. Narnians want festivity, and what better way to celebrate? Plus, I was thinking. I would very much like to see a crown prince."

"We're guys. I'm not gender swapping. You certainly aren't either."

"I know that, but I was talking to Susan. She'd be willing to carry a child for us."

"She's your sister!" I said.

"It's not like I'm going to bugger her myself."

"Well, I'm certainly not. Susan is my best friend. Us doing anything together would be weird." "Tom, we have magic. You're a man. She's a woman. I'm sure you could figure out a way to get your stuff inside of hers without you two actually doing anything."

I hummed noncommitally. I knew I had a book somewhere about magical conception. Jadis could bloody well have been a Ravenclaw for all the books she had. But the whole thing squick me out."

"Well?" He said.

"Yes, but I'm not sure I want a giant wedding. Maybe a few guests. The beavers, my lieutenant in the mage corps. " I stated.

"It will have to be. I was talking to Edmund. As long as Harpina is okay with it, we want a double wedding."

"Oh dear god." I said. I'd have to socialize.

"Hush. Susan and Lucy are already drawing up plans."  
"Did _everyone_ know about this?"

"I've been busy this morning." He said, with a wicked grin that drove me wild.

I wandlessly locked the door.

/

END FLUFF

/

After Peter's impromptu proposal in my lab, and the news of Harpina accepting. The castle went into a flurry of activity in anticipation for the wedding. The Girls informed me that my input wasn't neccesary, and that I could remained locked in my tower until it was time for the ceremony. Since Harpina was in the childway, Edmund wanted to have the wedding in Midsummer on the day of the solistice. After mapping out Susan's... cycles. We figured out that this would also make a conception date. The actual spell was simple. It was short notice, but with magic, they pulled together the ceremony.

It was a grand festival the lasted nearly a week. A week filled with jousts, and archery, and magical competitions. A week of feasts, culminating in two ceremonies a day apart.

That night, while everyone was dancing the night away. Susan and I stole away to my lab. A specialized switching spell later and the job was done.

Six months later, Prince Shaun Thomas Pevensie was born to King Edmund the Just, Duke of the Lantern Waste, and Queen Harpina, Daughter of the Lord of the Silver Sea.

Three months later, Crown Prince Edward Lucian, Heir to the Royal Throne of Narnia, was born to Queen Susan of the Horn, sired by Prince Consort Lord Thomas the Selfless, and for six months Narnia celebrated the birth of the first two members of the royal family.

There was peace for a time. The young princes turned from babes to toddlers. All was right. Then nearly twelve years after the Pevensies were crowned, Narnia found itself at war on two fronts.


	25. Chapter 25

King Peter was the first of us to go to War. There had been rumbling from Ettinsmoor for quite some time. Giants were massing at the border. He took a quarter of the forces at our disposal, along with siege weapons I'd engineered and left for the North.

Calormen sent an ambassador to us aboard a boat. Seeking peace. After some discussion, Susan, Edmund and Harpina left Cair Paravel via mirror. They would meet up with Prince Col in Archenland, and traveling in a caravan from there. This left Lucy and I to mind Cair Paravel in their stead.

Two weeks had passed. Summer had come to the castle. Lucy and I were in the summer kitchens enjoying tea. That's when things went to hell.

A loud reverberating boom sounded out.

"That was a cannon shot." Lucy said. I nodded. I mentally reviewed my scheduling. There weren't any training sessions today. Nor any drills. Suddenly a hum of magic filled the air. I knew that hum. The watchtowers had just activated.

"Lucy, I'll find the children. Find out what's going on." I said. She nodded pulled out a mirror from her pocket. I unrolled a map from my pocket. It was designed to work much like a map I'd read long ago in a book.

"Show me the citizens of Cair Paravel." I said, ink filled the page. Sketching an outline of the castle, I saw the children's names in green. Their governess's name was in red. They were on the grounds. Cad was near them and drawing closer. A fourth name I didn't recognized appeared. Then the three of them vanished from the map.

"We're under attack!" Lucy said. I was already on the move. I threw the map at Lucy. Then when I reached the front courtyard, I waved my wand.

"Piertotum Locomotor!" I yelled, a wave of magic flew out of my focus.

"The castle is threatened! Man the boundaries! Do your duty to this family and your keep!" I said. Statues began animating. Stone centaurs and fauns. Dwarves and griffins. Lions and Leopards. A dozen gargoyles took flight.

I flew into the air, activating the spell on my boots and gloves. I saw three ships in the harbor, hastily sailing away. I saw smoke, two of our man of wars were destroyed. Atop the two watchtowers, smoke came from one. The other fired it's ballistae and cannon time and time again. But these ships were fast, enchanted by magic for speed and defense.

I let out a growl. I drew up power, to begin casting a spell that would call up the sea and swallow these ships whole. I stopped mid cast, and allowed the power to drain. One of those ships had the children.

I apparated to the spot on the map where I last saw the children. Cad, Lucy, and a dozen centaurs were there. Lucy had conjured a white sheet and covered the dwarf governess.

"Tom!" Cad hissed.

"I'm sorry, I was hunting on the far side of the castle, I didn't know they were in danger." I patted the basilisk on the head.

"Cad, you didn't know they were in danger. I've no faith lost in you."

I turned to Lucy.

"My queen, I ask your leave to find our Princes."

She nodded.

"Make them pay Tom." I nodded.

"I wouldn't dream of not." I said, then I apparated away to my study.

I wasted no time. I dressed in dragon leather armor and an invisibility cloak. Godric's sword was on my hip along with my guns. A bandolier of throwing knives soaked in Cad's venom. My bone bow. A quiver of my deadliest arrows.

I stalked over to the map I had of the world, and pricked my finger.

"Pater sanguinem, locus." The drop of my blood flew unto the map. I traced the route with my eyes. Straight to Narrow Haven.

I let out a howl of anger. This time, I wouldn't be lenient. I'd learned a lot about magic since that ambush, and it had been a long time since I was in the fight.

I closed my eyes, turned on my heel and popped away to the portal room. When Narrow Haven had defected. I employed spies to set up a safehouse. Then I had obliviated them, got unbreakable vows out of them to never reveal they were employed by me, and set the fidelus around the small room we had rented in Narrow Haven. I traveled to that room, activated my cloak. And went to work. I waited until night fall. I had a mirror in my pocket that linked into the control room for the runic array. With a word, the two satyrs monitor it cut Narrow Haven's connection.

It would still be a day until the ships arrived. I flew high above the town and began waving my hands and wrists in gestures I'd drilled into myself. Soon a constellation of Geometry surrounded me. I threw the spell down, and the docks turned to ash. Then I drew my wand.

"Infernus! Nex Infernus! Spirit of fire I call to thee, Fiendfyre, unleash thyself!" I said. A tongue of flame wrapped around my wand. I forced it down, subsuming control. Then I threw my concentration into letting it grow. The cursed flame poured from my wand. Basilisks and dragons. Lions and wolves made of purple-red fire came into being. The island was soon consumed by infernal creatures. Screams filled the air. Soon, Narrow Haven was a burned out husk.

I ended the flames. Then I threw my magic into creating an illusion that the town was still whole and alive. I used the day until the ships arrived to rest and improve the illusion. They arrived in the morning. I performed the spell to locate the boys, found that ship and landed silently. I found the stateroom they were being held and put their guards to sleep. Then I covered the room in privacy spells, and dropped my cloak.

"Da?" Edward said. His face was grubby, and I cleaned them both, and nodded.

"Da's here now. Don't worry. I'm sending you to Aunt Lucy. You'll be safe." I said. I scribed a portal into the wall for Cair Paravel. Then I sent them through, along with a patronus telling Lucy that I would be along shortly.

I closed the portal. Then I renewed the disillusionment charm. I popped up to the top deck, and took to the air.

I activated a sonorus charm and dispelled the illusion. I changed the sonorus charm to make my voice deeper, and more graveley.

"This, this is what happens when you kidnap the innocent. This is what happens when you harm those who have done no harm. The island of Fair Haven is no more. It's citizens are gone, burned in their beds because they aided those who hurt the innocent. Behold, your doom."

I said, waiting for the sailors to assemble on their ships. I saw a rowboat heading towards the beach stop. I conjured illusions of flame that held it in place.

"Behold, I am the flames of justice! I am the fire of hell! I come for those who seek harm against those who have no defense! I am the defense of Narnia, unasked, unbidden! Now, you shall feel my wrath!" I said, and unleashed fiendfyre again. The cursed flames began consuming the ships. I shot my flintlocks downward. These were armed with explosive reductos, and fragmented upon impact, adding to the illusion of hellfire. Soon the three ships were burned to cinders. I looked down on the rowboat, and ended the illusions and the fiendfyre.

"It is your corrupt I claim. It is your evil that will be sought by me. Do not kill, do not rape, Do not not steal. These are not polite suggestions, these are codes of behavior and those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost. If you do you, one day you will look behind you and see my flames, and on that day, you will reap it. And I will send you to whatever god you wish!" I said, I let out a cannon blast charm from my wand, and apparated away to Narnia.

I arrived in my study, and stripped out my battle gear, and after a shower, I changed back into my normal clothes.

Lucy was waiting for me.

"How are the boys?" I asked.

"Fine for the most part. I gave them each a dose a dreamless sleep. Hopefully they'll think it was a bad dream." She said, I nodded.

"They're dealt with?" She asked. I nodded, and poured myself a cup of tea. I quickly added sugar and cooled it.

"How bad was it?"

I put my tea down.

"It was easily the worst thing I've ever done, Lu. I used fiendfyre."

I explained to her what I'd done. The anger was draining out of me. I felt a mix of satisfaction and weariness. I didn't feel guilt, and I long ago had gotten over any feelings of remorse from killing. They had deserved it. She nodded with satisfaction.

"We protect our own." She said. I nodded. Lucy went outside to practice with her daggers. I went to the library and curled up with a book. Cad had long since outgrown the castle, and I was really toying with hatching another basilisk, if only to have a couple years of cute snakey goodness before that one outgrew the castle as well.

Edmund and Susan came back that night from Archenland. The Tisroc had wanted her as a bride. There was a fight, and they escaped. Along the way, they'd discovered a plot regarding an invasion of Archenland. Edmund and Lucy soon left with an army in tow to help the Archenlanders repel the Calormen invasion.

That night, I was walking along the beach, alone. When Aslan appeared. I quickly bowed.

"Ryse son of Adam." He said, and I did so.

"Walk with me." He said, we took on a steady pace.

"Your time here is drawing to an end." He said. I frowned. There were so many things I'd needed to do still. So many ways I could improve life here.

"But surely, we haven't been here that long?" I said. It seemed as if England was a dream. A dream of a dream. I didn't even remember how we came to be here. I remember the battle, and trees. Something about a fur coat? And Godric's sword? I had been an age since I'd even thought about England.

"You've been here for long than you realize Tom." He replied with a purr of amusement.

"What about our children? Will they be able to come with us?" He shook his mane.

"Those who are born in Narnia, must stay in Narnia. They will be looked after, no harm will come to them." He said.

"But they're our children!"

"Narnians born in the land, are mine first and foremost." He said. There was a tone of something akin to possessiveness in his voice.

"That isn't fair!" I retorted. Feeling much like a child again.

"You use that word, I wonder what your basis of comparison is?" He replied.

"When will we leave?" I asked.

"Surely you remember the story?" He said. I did, but I'd learned so much in the time I'd been here, it had been locked away beneath a decade and a half of other memories. I frowned, and realized I'd been in this universe for nearly as long as I'd lived before. Much like our arrival in Narnia, I couldn't quite remember.

"I do have a few issues with your conduct here." He said.

"Oh?"

"Your handling of the Narrow Islands. Your speech. Narnia is a land of magic. Magic has a habit of bringing beliefs to life. Believe something enough, and allow that belief to flourish, and it may just come to life. You gave those three boys plenty of belief and fear with your demonstration."

"What will happen to them?" I asked.

"That is not my story to tell." He said.

"You're damned cryptic when you want to be." I said. He purred, and I swore he smiled. We had reached the courtyard of the castle. I felt a lump begin forming in my throat.

"I don't want to leave." I said, I felt hot tears run down my face, and choked back a sob. I'd built a life here, and this was the happiest I'd been in years.

"Son of Adam, there is a time and a season for all things. Your season is coming to an end. Now I must leave." The Lion said. He departed. I wiped my tears, and left for my quarters.

Months passed. Peter came back from the North. The giants had been repelled. After seeing our formidable siege weapons, and losing nearly a dozen of their kind. They had retreated. We commissioned watchtowers along the Northern borders. I spent my days over seeing my mages and packing furiously. Recalling a fascination I had as a boy, I took to carrying around my possessions in shrunken trunks on my person. Summer faded into fall, and then into winter. Spring came once more, and soon summer set in. A stifling heat came across Narnia. The five of us became restless. It was Edmund's idea to hunt a white stag. We left the children with their governess, and set forth on our hunt.


	26. Chapter 26

We set out from Cair Paravel with hounds, and a royal hunting party. We chased the stag through most of the Lantern Waste. We came to the woods inside the Lantern Waste. The forest was think, and long overgrown.

Edmund's horse slowed.

"You alright there Philip?" He asked his horse.

"Not as young as I used to be, your grace." The horse replied. We dismounted the horse

"Rest now, old friend. We won't be able to go much farther on horseback anyway." We traveled through the woods for a time. Then we came to a tall iron lamppost.

"How odd, I don't remember us placing this here." I said. The four of them shook their heads.

"This post. It's seems like a dream." Susan murmured.

"Or a dream of dream." Lucy said.

"War Drobe… Spare Ooom." She muttered, and ran off into the woods.

"Lucy! Come back!" Peter said, and we took off towards the queen. We went deeper into the woods. Some queer happened.

"These aren't branches." Peter said.

"They're coats!" Susan replied.

"Blood hell, Tom, you're stepping on my foot." Susan said, and pushed me, I pushed Peter, who pushed Lucy, and we all tumbled to the ground. We weren't in the woods anymore. We were in a wood paneled room. Then a curious old man came into the room. I looked around. There were four children staring back at me. Our clothes had changed, been resized. It was still the garb we had, but it was now sized for children. Susan's horn had mysteriously vanished. Peter had left Rhindon behind. But Godric's sword was no longer on my belt.

"There you are." The Professor said.

"What were you children doing in the Wardrobe?" He said. Instantly a look of understanding passed between Edmund and I. We raced back into the wardrobe. The back was solid.

"No! No! No!" I said. I pounded on the back of the wardrobe, and let out a sound somewhere between a sob and a scream. I sunk to my knees. Peter went back in and hauled me out. Distantly I was aware of the Professor demanding an explanation.

"Sir, you wouldn't beleive us if we told you." Susan said.

"Try me." The Professor replied. We had told the professor our story over cups of tea laced with just a touch of brandy. He had shared his own. About a trip between pools, four magic rings, and a magical apple. A dead world, and a vengeful queen.

Later that night, after an unspoken agreement, Lucy and I stole back to the wardrobe. We had hidden our narnian clothes in my school trunk. I had both my wands with me, and tried every trick I knew. Even the humming in back of the wardrobe was gone.

"I don't think you'll get back in that way. You see, I've already tried." The professor said.

"Will we ever go back?" Lucy asked. I had grown used to a young women, not this timid, scared little girl in front of me.

"I expect so, probably when you least expect it. I'd suggest you keep your eyes open."

The three of us walked out of the room. As I close my eyes and succumbed to an exhausted sleep, I heard a lion roar in the distance.

The next day was Christmas. We opened our gifts almost soberly. Reg had sent me a book about herbology that I had long since moved past. I got chocolate frogs and the second edition of the animagery text book from Minnie. I had long forgotten what I'd given them. We spent the last days of the holiday brooding. Mourning the lives we'd lost. Occasionally one of us would begin a sentence, talking about goings on in the castle, and trail off. New Years came and went. Peter and I departed Coombe Halt, and spent the train ride back to London in silence.


	27. Chapter 27

AN: I'm posting multiple chapters this time around. I'll be doing this once a day until I catch up to Space Battles. Chapters 27-30 will post today.

We boarded the train for Hogwarts. We were the first aboard. I'd discovered, through some cautious experimentation, that because of our time in Narnia, our wands no longer contained the trace. Peter put up privacy spells and notice me nots on our compartment. Out of long habit, I added my own.

"We need to talk."

"About?"  
"About us. About Narnia. Tom, we were _together_ there. If anyone here found out. We'd be ridiculed. Could you imagine what my mum and dad would say?" I froze. The 1940s were a dark time, in more ways than one. I'd come from a more accepting period. I understood what he meant though. I had plans, now that we were back in England. Plans that most certainly didn't involve being labeled a faggot, or something worse. I already had my socioeconomic background going against me. Peter was from a solid middle class, but his reputation would be at stake as well. I nodded. His father was in the service. I hated to admit it, but I understand perfectly what we he was saying. Even if the Wizarding World was accepting of it. The muggle world wasn't.

"So what do you want to do about it?"

"Tom, you've made me the happiest I've even been. But, I think we should be just friends." I agreed his a hestant nod of my head.

"Friends, lovers, or something more, I'm with you." I said.

"Until the very end?" He asked.

"Until the very end." I said, and we clasped hands. We brought down the wards we had hastily thrown up.

That was when Malfoy and Black barged into our compartment.

"Oh, look. The two mudbloods. Finding a space to snog? I knew they grew up in the dirt with the animals, Black, I'd didn't think they behaved like them too. Tell me, Pevensie. Does your family share a bed?"

He looked at me. I nodded. I threw up the locking spells, the notice me nots, and the privacy charms. Peter stunned them both and bound them with chains. He moved them over to our his side of the compartment and took a seat next to me.

I silenced them, and then rennervated them.

"Me or you?" I asked.

"You've always been a better hand then I at this, Lord Thomas."

"Why, thank you King Peter, I do quite appreciate that."

"Imperio," I whispered, my voice as soft as velvet. The cloudy haze settled over both of them, and blank looks covered their faces.

"You will stop being bullies. You will cease the name calling. Cease the racism. You will not ever disparage someone's blood status again." I said.

"Nor will you pick on the class they hold in life. You will be kind to your fellow classmates. Your aspirations in life will be to make the world a better place." Peter said.

"You will report to me, on the second saturday of every month, on the seventh floor corridor. You will not speak to anyone of this. You will not try to reveal in any way, shape or form that this is happening. You will not question my orders, nor try to find a way around them. Your first loyalties will always be to Peter Pevensie, and any future Pevensie that enters the halls of Hogwarts, and Tom Riddle. When I release your chains, you will swear loyalty to us in the forms of unbreakable vows. You will not, in any way, through act of omission, lie or outright truth, reveal these bonds." I said.

"Nor will you try to intentionally bring harm to yourself or each other, through muggle means. Through act of spell, use of potion, or artifact, or acts which puts you in danger or chance of death." Peter said, and finite'd their charms.

"You first, Malfoy."

Malfoy took out his wand, and he swore a Vow to Peter. Black did the same.

"Now, Obliviate!" I erased the last three minutes from their lives, and then hit them with a confundus.

"You had a wonderful New Years, but seeing what the the muggles are capable of gave you a new outlook on life. You came into our compartment to make amends." I said. They both nodded unsteadily. I broke my privacy wards. They left.

We spent the last the next few hours reading and talking. We finally caught up with Reg and Minnie on the thestral lead carriages.

"Where were you two?" She asked.

"On the train. Where else would be?" I said as we settled into the carriages.

"We looked for you everywhere." Reg said.

"Sorry." I replied.

"Thank you for the book Tom, I'm nae dueler, but it will be useful in our later years." Minnie said.

Oh, that's right. I'd given her a book on transfiguration in Dueling.

"How'd you like that book on Herbology?" Reg asked me.

"Oh, it was interesting. Thank you for it." I replied.

The carriage lapsed into silence. For a change. I had no books to read. To treaties to go over. No runic diagrams to analyze. For the first time in as long I could remember, I had nothing to do but bide my time. I sat back and tried relax. Mid way through the trip,Peter started. Nearly bolted upright. Then frowned deeply and slumped back down, a look on his face I'd long taken to know as one of anger. I quirked an eyebrow at him, and a he gave a minute shake of his head. Yeah right Pevensie, that looked certainly didn't mean nothing.

We got out of the carriage and I leapt down and out of the carriage, and hit the ground hard. I brushed the snow off my trousers. What the hell just happened? I should have made that jump no problem. Then I realized, I would have in my old body. I scowled. Peter made the same mistake I had, hitting the ground with an oomph.

Minnie and Reg gave us odd looks.

"What's wrong with you two?" Reg asked.

"Guess I just over estimated the space to the ground." I said, and Peter nodded silently.

We trooped up to the castle. The feast was bland, and I found myself longing for a glass of faun wine. We went up to our dorms, after taking a wrong turn once. Peter got into his bed clothes and climbed into his bed. I climbed into my own cold bed, and fell into a restless sleep.


	28. Chapter 28

Monday morning I woke to a flurry of activity in my quarters. I groaned at the noise. Who was waking me this early? Mondays were usually spent with the mages, and our first meeting didn't usually convene until well after breakfast and sometimes lunch. I'd become a later riser over the years. Sometimes my duties meant that I fell asleep with the sunrise. Could Peter have an early morning meeting with the castle guard, and I had missed it? I placed my hand on his side of the bed. It was cold. He must have been up for some time. For a change nothing hurt when I woke. My hands sometimes hurt like hell in the morning, especially after a long day of magic use.

I opened my eyes. When did I get bed curtains? I tried to wandless seperate open them, and my magic fizzled. What was that about? Then I realized where I was.

I opened my bed curtains and grabbed my wand off my bedside table. I'd secreted Jadis' away in one of my trunks. I braced for pain as I went to sit up. The cordial had healed my leg for the most part, but it sometimes had a habit of stiffening up during the night. I was mildly shocked when I put pressure on it without being in pain. I dug through clothes, found none that I recognized. Grabbed a shirt, a pair of trousers, and my underthings. I hurried into a shower. After showering with sharp smelling school soap, and drying with a spell, and dressed hurriedly. Everything was itchy, and I mean everything.

Peter was still asleep. He'd spelled his bed curtains shut. I broke the spell with a flick. I leaned into the bed and shook him awake.

He woke with a start.

"I'm up, what's wrong? The giants?" He said. I shook my head.

"We've got classes." I told him. For a moment confusion crossed his face. Then he nodded. He showered and dressed and we made our way down to the great hall for breakfast.

Out of long habit. I fixed our cups of tea while he fixed our toast. Two sugars and a squeeze of lemon for him. Three lumps of sugar and a splash of cream for me. There wasn't cream available, and I wondered about that. Then I remembered rationing. I settled for a splash of watery looking milk. I handed him his tea as he handed me my toast and eggs.

There wasn't butter either, apparently.

Reg and Min were giving us odd looks.

"What?" I said. Why were they staring at us?

I took a bite of toast. It looked odd. Then I realized what was wrong with it. It wasn't the thick brown bread I usually had. This toast was white, and tasted dry. I washed it down with a sip of cooled tea. This was still bitter. I added another lump of sugar, and it still tasted to bitter. I settled for a glass of water.

"I for one, do not want to go to History of Magic." Reg said. He had a book open on magizoology.

"Hmm?" I asked.

"History of Magic, our first class?" Reg said, as if I was particularly slow.

"Oh, of course." I replied. I noticed Peter hadn't eaten much of his breakfast either.

"Hey, Reg, do you happen to have a copy of your timetable on you, I seemed to have forgotten mine in my room?" I asked. He gave me another odd looked, but produced it.

I gemino'd a copy with a wave of my wand and returned it to him. I'd find mine later that night.

History of magic was our first class. We departed the great hall. Reg and Min took a left, and we went right.

"Where are you going?" Minnie asked.

"To History of Magic?"

"Did you discover a shortcut? It's this way." Peter and I exchanged looks, his gave a small shrug, we followed them.

I had utterly forgotten how absolutely droll history of magic was. I dozed through the class. Minnie had to elbow me awake twice. Our next class was Potions. Slughorn asked for our homework. I froze. Homework? Fuck, homework!

"Sir, I beg your forgiveness, I must have lost it." I said. Slughorn frowned.

"Well, Mr. Riddle, but I must beg your forgiveness, for you will receive a T for that." Slughorn said. Peter had forgotten his to. The potion he gave us was trivial. I could brew a sleeping draught in my sleep. His directions were bad though. He told us to dice the valerian root. I took my mortar and pestle out and muddled them. He walked through the classroom.

"Mr. Riddle, what are you doing?"

"Preparing my valerian root." I said, concentrating on making a paste.

"The directions explicitly tell you to slice the root."

"The directions are wrong." I replied.

"Mr. Riddle, I assure you, they are not."

"Mr. Slughorn, I assure you, they are. The entire point of dicing the valerian root is to extract the juices from the root. By muddling them, you release the juices much more efficient. Don't you read your higher year textbooks?"

"That will be quite enough." He said.

"I agree, I believe this class, and root is quite muddled."

"Detention, for two weeks, and twenty points from Gryffindor."

"If I can leave class early, can we make it three?" I asked.

I'm pretty sure I was going to give him an aneurysm. I didn't care.

"Go!" He barked. I left the dungeons, and wandered up to the tower. I found my timetable and discovered the runes class that took up my tuesday mornings. Then I searched through my trunk. I found my homework completed, shoved to the very bottom. I shook my head.

I wandered into the Great Hall and slumped down to the Gryffindor table. A young girl in blue and gold waved at me, and I waved back. Who was she? I realized she might have been a first year I was tutoring before. Well, that would be ending. I had already taught nearly three squadrons of mages, and two other wizards. I would not be teaching another.

Reg, Min and Peter soon sat down. Reg and Minnie quickly fixed themselves plates. I found nothing appetizing.

"Mate, what was that?" Reg asked me.

"What do you mean?"

"You told off a teacher!" Minnie said.

"Your point is?" I asked.

"That he's an authority figure, and you should respect him!" She said.

"Minnie, I mean you all due respect, but if I refuse to answer to him, why should I hold myself accountable to you?" She looked flabbergasted for a moment, and then she burst into tears. I left the great hall and wandered. We had hours to go until our last class. I decided to go for a run. I placed warming charms on myself, stripped out of my school robes, and went to the lake. It should have been cathartic, but I was quickly out of breath. Then I slipped on an icy patch and fell on my ass.

By the time I'd dried myself off, and walked back to the castle, it was nearly time for transfiguration. This class was actually interesting. I hadn't paid much attention to transfiguration in my years of studying. I'd played to my strengths, runes, arithmancy, and charms.

Transfiguration was a breath of fresh air, and I threw myself into it. After Transfiguration, the rest of our day was free.

I grabbed Peter after dinner and dragged him to the seventh floor corridor and then into the room of requirement, and ordered an archery range, complete with an eclectic selection of bows.

"What is this place?" He asked.

"It's something I stumbled onto as a firstie. As far I can tell, the room turns into whatever you want." I said, grabbed a bow and strung it. I tested the draw, it was difficult to pull back. Unstrung it and put it away. I chose a smaller bow and tested the draw weight on that.

Then I notched an arrow and let fly. Hmm, off a by a bit. I had to aim higher. Peter soon joined me. That was when the door opened. Peter instantly had his bow dropped and his wand drawn. I wasn't far behind him.

"We've been looking everywhere for you two." She said. She ambled over to the archery range, and expertly began stringing it.

"Minerva, you know archery?" I said.

"Of course I know archery you daft git, I'm scottish."

"Would you two mind telling what the bloody hell is wrong with you two?" Reg said, a look of haughty arrogance that would make Peter's "king" face look downright agreeable.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean, that Peter, who is usually nice to all and sundry, has barely said two words to anyone since coming back. Tom, you may be an ass, but you've certainly never spoke back to a teacher. You definitely wouldn't be an ass to Min unless you had an absolutely stellar reason. Now, unless we get an explanation, we're going to Merrythought."

I looked at Peter, quirked an eyebrow. He gave a slight nod of his head.

"That's another thing! You two are bloody telepathic or something now!" Reg said. We instantly launched into a series of privacy spells, and unlocked the door.

"Where did you lot learn all that?" He practically yelled.

"We'll tell you, but we need you swear vows that you won't tell anyone what we tell you, unless you swear a Vow. Unless both of swear one."

Reg went white.

"You mean an unbreakable vow?" He asked.

"Min, what do you think?" He asked her.

"I think you've both gone daft, but if it helps us get to the bottom of all this, then fine." She said, and they swore vows. Then we told them a sanitized version of the story. We left out my razing of Narrow Haven, and how we used the Unforgivables so often, but other than that, they got the truth.

"So, you five where there for how long?" Reg said.

"Nearly fifteen years." Peter said solemnly.

"And you came back as children?" Min asked, I nodded.

"You two aren't pulling our legs?" She said.

In reply, I did a bit of wandless magic. It took two tries, my wandless magic was still acting a little funny, but I used an Utgarde Prismatic Spray, and Peter demonstrated a spell or two as well.

"Bloody buggering shit." Reg said.

"Language!"

"Min, we should tell them."

"Reg!"

"They've been through their own adventure. They should know. But we want our own vow in return."

Peter and I hesitantly agreed.

"Min came over to my house during the holidays. There's this weird mirror in a room in our attic. We got sucked into it."

"Like a portal?" I asked.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Well, anyways. Min and I got sucked into this portal, and we met these two other kids. Jane and Rupert. They were brother and sister. They told us we were in Fillory."

"Wait, like the books?" Peter asked, and Min nodded.

" Well, they were on a quest to find this great army of sharks. Something about this woman who could stop time or something, and somehow the sharks would stop her. Anyhow, the four of us, we boarded a ship that was crewed with talking otters. These otters took us to a place called the secret sea. We sailed for weeks to get there. Except, it wasn't secret. There was this army of dolphins who really hated the sharks. We helped save the sharks and they repaid the Chatwins, that's Jane and Rupert, by helping stop the women. Then the four of us went our separate ways. Min and I came out of the mirror, and since the mirror was just a mirror. We thought we'd imagined it. You know, 'cuz no time had passed. I'd gotten a wicked sunburn, and that was gone, and we were still in our play clothes." Reg said.

"It was like a dream." Min said.

"Or a dream of a dream?" I asked, and she nodded. We were all quiet after that.

"Mate, while don't know everything you've been through. We can guess. Leaving Fillory and coming back to Earth. Well, it was like the color went out of everything."

"Like you were living in a dream, and you wake up, and then want to go back to sleep, but you can't because the dream is gone?" I asked, Reg nodded sadly.

"Does everything taste different to you?" Peter asked quietly. Reg and Min both nodded.

"I never realized how bland food could be. Our pudding for christmas was awful." Min said.

"We've been having that problem too." Peter said.

"So, on our way back to the castle yesterday, that was?"

"We grew up there." Peter said simply. It was enough for Reg and Min.

"So, Peter, your brother and sisters went with you?" Reg asked.

"I honestly thought muggles couldn't go. I mean, Rupert and Jane both knew a couple of bits of magic."

"They aren't muggles." I said.

"Su is easily one of the best battle mages I've ever seen. I should know. I trained all the ones we had. Lu, is a healer. Bloody good at it too. She's a deft hand at curses when she gets her dander up. Ed, well, Ed knows more about shields and wards than I do, and that's saying something."

"How did they learn magic, do they have wands?" Reg asked.

"We made a wand for Lucy, Su and Ed don't need one."  
"Wait, wandless. They know wandless magic? That's supposed to be bloody difficult. My sister is always going on about circumstances. I took a peek at her books, those finger movements look painful."

"They bloody well are." I said.

Minerva suddenly checked the time with the tempus spell, it was almost ten o'clock.

"It's almost curfew. We should be getting back to the tower." She said. The three of us reluctantly nodded, left the room and headed back up to Gryffindor's dorms.

Tuesday morning came. I had to set an alarm charm to get to Runes Class on Time. I flew through the corridors and arrived shortly after Babbling's study hours began.

"Sorry, I'm a bit late." I said, almost panting. I need to regain some of my physique back quickly. This body wasn't pudgy or anything, but I was used to being able, to do anything really, for long periods of time without running out of breath.

"Oh, it's fine Tom." I bristled at the lack of respect, and almost corrected her with my proper title, and realized that she wasn't being discourteous, I didn't have a proper title anymore.

"How were you holidays?" She asked.

"They were fine. How were yours?" I replied.

"They were great. For your assignment this week, now that you've mastered Freyja's Aett, we're moving on to another section. Heimdall's Aett. I understand your probably not quite back into the swing of things quite yet. Christmas has a habit of distracting most of my students. So, for this assignment, I'm going to have use list just five of those runes. I want you to tell me three meanings for each of them. It's a quick assignment to get you back into things." She said. I nodded, having long since mastered the futhark. It was the basis for all the rune based enchantments I'd used in Narnia.

I chose Algiz, Hagalaz, and Eihwaz. As I was writing the runes, I had a small flashback to teaching my own images about them. It was during the construction of the watchtowers.

The day was bright and sunny, summer had come. Narrow Haven had put us all on the defensive. This was my second class of mages I had taught. The second class to begin teaching students of their own.

"Now, Algiz is a simple rune, but powerful." I'd said.

"It's primarily used for protection. We're going to be carving this rune in the base of the watchtowers. But we're also going to be carving the arithmetic formula for the three enchantments that will be the cornerstone for Cair Paravel's wards. Can someone tell me how Algiz reacts with Protego Maxima." A giant minotaur raised his hand.

"Yes, Calminos?"

"Algiz is a shield rune. Protego Maxima is the strongest shield we have. Algiz would, when carved with the correct intent, bolster the strength of it." Calminos said. I nodded happily.

"Very good." I said. Calminos was quiet. Despite his fearsome appearance, he was one of the quietest, gentlest beings I knew. He didn't like to speak in public. For him to answer a question in a setting that wasn't one on one spoke of his conviction about his answer.

"You're correct. But it will also interact with another spell in the shield trio. Can someone tell me which spell that is?" I said.

I shook my head, clearing my mind of my reverie. I finished my assignment, turned it in and left the classroom.

We had potions later in the day. Then a Astronomy practical. I'd done some thinking the night before. Over lunch, I had a small conference with Reg and Min, and Peter.

"Meet me on the seventh floor corridor." I told the three of them. Peter shot me an inquisitive look. I gave him a you'll see look.

We hurried through lunch, and they followed me to the room of requirement. I paced back and forth thrice. A door appeared. Inside the room there was a range of training dummies. The stone floor and motifs on the walls definitely had a feel of the training room of our castle.

"What's this?" Min asked.

"I'm going to train you." I said.

"What?"

"Wanded and Wandless spells. Magic to shield yourself from harm and do great harm against your enemies. To call upon force and flame. You need to learn how to defend yourself. The world is at war."

"They're too young!" Peter said.

"They're our age." I said simply.

"You know what I mean." Peter replied.

"Well, we were their age when we fought her." I said simply. He nodded reluctantly. We began the training session.

The remainder of tuesday and wednesday passed uneventfully. It was thursday when we had a break from the monotony in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Welcome back to Defense Against the Dark Arts." Professor Merrythought said.

"Today will be a bit of a break from our other lessons. I understand that this is your first class in this subject since we returning. So we'll have a mock duel instead of our usual class. The last one standing, or not disarmed wins. Everyone stand." Merrythought said. She waved her wand, and the chairs and desks went to each side of the room.

"Now, please restrict yourself to shields, disarms and stunners. Begin."

Peter and I shared looks, and went on the attack. We alternated between shielding and stunning. In two minutes, the entirety of the class was down. Then we shared another look.

"Four paces, Riddle." He said.

"At your command my liege." I said in a snide tone. This was an old game. We stepped back four paces, bowed, and attacked. I unleashed a flurry of stunners and reductos. He blocked them, summoned a desk from behind me and would have slammed it into my back had I not rolled out of the way. I banished the desk at him, snapped off my own reductor and brought my own shield back up just as quickly. A half dozen spectral daggers peppered my protego. I countered with a summoned, banished desk that he vanished. I hit him with a diffindo, glancing his shoulder, and drawing first blood. He sent out an expelliarmus I deflected, and unleashed an incendio. He blocked it, and sent a spear of ice I shattered.

"Enough!" Professor Merrythought said. There was a look of shock on her face. I looked around the room. Well then, that wasn't according to plan.

"Sorry, Professor. We got a bit carried away." Peter said sheepishly.

"I see this. Twenty points to gryffindor to each of you for your exhibition. But, I'm taking ten of those points away for putting your classmates in harm's way." Peter set his mouth in a firm line, but nodded.

"Now, help me revive your classmates." She said. We did so, and she sent us off to our potions class.

The days followed in a blur. We trained Reg and Min. They were coming along. Both showed promise, but it would be a long time until they were up to the standards I had. Winter broke, and spring followed. We signed up for our electives and soon it was May.

Peter cornered me one day.

"So, what are your plans for the summer?" He asked.

"I'm going to a meeting at Gringotts, then I'm going to wander around Muggle London.

"You're going Wools?" He asked.

"Well, I don't have anywhere else to be." I said.

"Yes, you do. You're coming home with me," He said simply.

"Your mums okay with it?" I asked.

"Yes. She is. She'll be at work quite a bit. I told her you were more than happy to pay for your own food. I'm sure you can magic up a rations card." He said. I nodded.

"I do have to go to Gringotts though. I've got plans, and a deposit to make." I said.

"Of course." He replied. We hurried off to herbology.

Soon, the school year ended, and we departed to London.


	29. Chapter 29

Staff Meeting Room, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. May, 1941.

The children had been sent home for the summer holidays. As always the graduation was bittersweet. Albus felt that this was an especially bittersweet year. Most of the graduating muggleborn boys would probably never return home. Nearly all of them were turning eighteen or had turned eighteen. This castle and the excuse of school it provided wouldn't shelter them anymore. The muggleborns would be heading to war. Even some of the purebloods and hit wizards would be enlisting in the Hit Wizards to join the ICW Coalition that was fighting the magical side of the war. At the end of this term, his temporary successor installed, Albus himself would be shipping out to join an ICW Squad intent on hunting down his former lover and best friend and put an end to this ugly war. After years of working on breaking the blood oath, it was finally destroyed, and Albus was very much prepared to hunt down Gellert and his brother.

Instead of the incoming fifth years, the discussion had once again turned to the younger crowd, and once again to young Misters Riddle and Pevensie. The two boys had come back from the holidays, changed. They were still friends with Miss McGonagall, and Mr. Longbottom, but it seemed as though a rift had formed between those four and the rest of their classmates.

Mr. Riddle had always been reserved, but Mr. Pevensie had been outgoing for the most part. Now both of them threw themselves into their studies and barely interacted with the rest of the school. They'd been nearly top of their year before, but now they were firmly tied for first. The only class they weren't completely astounding their instructors in were History of Magic and Astronomy. It would take a bomb and a necromancer to make Binns notice something, and he'd likely ignore the first. Albus had no ideas about why they weren't performing well in Astronomy.

"Has anyone noticed anything particular about them, aside from their avoiding their classmates?"

"I organized a mock duel in my class the week before exams. It was a free for all mostly. Restricted to stunners and expelliarmus. It was more of a time for them to stretch their muscles than anything. I occasionally do this with the younger years, just to test reflexes and begin earmarking for the dueling team for next year." Galena said.

"Pevensie and Riddle teamed up with each other. They worked like a well oiled machine. I've seen Hit wizard teams that are less coordinated than those two. In almost two minutes time they had stunned all eighteen of their classmates, silently. Then they begin dueling each other. For two second years, even two seventh years, I have no seen two mages clash so quickly and parry so fast. It was if they'd gained years of combat experience. They were brutal with each other. Summoning furniture, chairs. Using enough spellwork to make even a seventh year faint. I even saw them use reductos and conjured daggers to throw at each other. All without saying a word. It took me nearly another two minutes before I realized what was going on and put an end to it. Even then, young Mr. Pevensie seemed more like he was humoring me than actually listening. It was eerie." Albus nodded. Mr. Pevensie had an air about him now that was more common to a pureblood who knew their way and station in life, and damn anyone who thought differently. It was almost regal. It was not the demeanor of second year muggleborn from Finchley, that was certain.

"Pevensie's potions would put my OWL year to shame." Horace said.

"His brewing skills are meticulous. I've never seen that in a second year, especially a muggleborn."

"Riddle has taken to performing the charms I assign in class silently. I don't even think he's aware he's not enunciating."

"What classes are they taking next year?" Albus asked Galena, she was their head of house.

"All of them. They've both signed up for all the electives. I've already forwarded the paperwork for time turner issuance to the department for scholastic horomancy. "

"Has anyone noticed the way they feel now?" Filius said timidly, and it was if a damn broke.

Everyone knew that a magical growth spurt happened between the ages of seventeen and thirty-five. This growth spurt indicated many things about a wizard. For all intents and purposes, to Albus, he could feel the magic coming off the two boys like a heatwave. He was accustomed to this feeling coming from some seventh years, but for two second years to enter their magical maturity at the same time was unheard of.

"Brakebills is going to be practically beating down our door in the next few years." Galena murmured.

"If Miskatonic doesn't beat them to it." Bathsheda replied.

"Fogg is a cagey old bastard, I'd doubt he'd even let them snag these two out from under his nose." Fillius replied.

"Still, what could two boys have gotten into over the holidays that would change them so dramatically?" Slughorn asked.

"Irma, did Tom sneak into the restricted section at all before leaving for the holidays?" The boy had attempted that once before.

"No, in fact neither of them have checked out any books the whole time they've been back. It's highly irregular. Usually Mr. Riddle has at least six different times out."

"Bathsheda, how is he doing in runes?"

"He's not trying."

"So he's given up?" Galena asked.

"Oh, no. You misunderstand me. He spends practically no time on the essays and worksheets, but is getting Outstandings." Bathsheda remarked.

"We need to keep an eye on those two, when they come back here." Galena stated.

"That won't be the only one we have to keep an eye on." Albus said.

"Hmm?" Slughorn said.

"Mr. Longbottom's brother is coming to Hogwarts next year. It seems as though his mother has decided not to pursue education at home for the boy. And Mr. Pevensie's youngest sister has been accepted into Hogwarts. I saw her name on the register."

"Another Pevensie?" Slughorn replied. He had been trying to recruit Peter into his little club for nearly half the year.

"Horace, she's a young girl, and you know of Pevensie's temper as of late. I would hate to have to cast aspersions on your character. Leave Lucy Pevensie alone." Albus said, Horace grumbled and nodded.

"I do have to warn you all thought about the younger Longbottom, Young Algernon has quite the imagination. The primary reason his mother is sending him to Hogwarts is he has quite the tendency to disappear, only to reappear hours later with tales of fantastic worlds. He's quite precocious. I'm telling you now, so you may prepare your prefects accordingly. Now, are there any other matters to attend to?"

"Did you hear about the Black and Malfoy scions?" Horace said.

"No, what happened." Filius replied.

"They were each taken to a private healer for an after school checkup. Well, a dear friend at Mungos informed me that both of them have signs of the Imperius."

"How old are the signs?" Albus asked. Someone affected by dark magic in Hogwarts was worrying."

"Since around the Christmas Holidays. It was rumored that the Malfoys had a guest then. Calum Rosier, Vinda Rosier's brother." There were muttered gasps around the room. Vinda Rosier was a fugitive wanted by the ICW. She was well known as Gellert's right hand witch.

"The rumor is that Calum cast the Unforgivables on the two boys, perhaps as a way to strike against their families. They curse was broken, but whoever cursed them also forced them both to swear an unbreakable Vow." Slughorn said, and then sipped his brandy glamoured as tea. Albus knew he loved the attention, but this news was unsettling.

"There's no way to tell who cursed them, then, is there?" Bathsheda murmured, and Galena shook her head.

"Those two poor boys." Albus thought, and his mind turned to two other boys who had sworn vows to each other years before. Him and Gellert would face each other across the field of battle soon, and Albus dreaded that coming conflict. 


	30. Chapter 30

I spent all of a day at Wools. The horrible food, the awful bed. I wouldn't abide it. I'd been a lord, second male in line to the throne of a kingdom. I would not live in a place of squalor. I packed my stuff, confunded and imperio'd Mrs. Cole wandlessly, no easy feat mind you, and forced her to believe my father had found and claimed me.

I caught the Knight Bus, and took that to the Leaky. From there, I went to Gringotts, and made my normal deposit. Well, not really normal. I'd sorta robbed the treasury before we left for the hunt, not much mind you in regards to running a kingdom, but it was a significant amount of gold. The goblins muttered about the other type of coin, but they verified it was actual gold.

Then I sat down with a meeting with one of their investment bankers.

"Hello young wizard." The goblin said.

"Hi!" I replied cheerfully.

"What brings you here today?" He said. I'd only gotten this meeting because of the amount of gold I'd deposited in my vault, and I knew I had one shot at this.

"I was wondering, esteemed goblin, if you could perhaps, retains the services of a wizarding patent solicitor on my behalf."

"Why would we do that?"

"Because, I've invented something that could literally revolutionize the wizarding world, and If you would be willing to help me in this matter, I'd be willing to split the profits with you."

"What is this invention?" I opened my suitcase, and pulled two typewriters out. Well, this had been drastically scaled down. They were about the size of a 12' by 10' blackboard, the frame was golden, and the top was a mirror. The bottom of it was a flat keyboard. I pushed a button on the side of it. The keyboard popped up.

"I call this the magitype mark 1. It's a personal communications device designed for quick messages between two parties. As of right now, they only work with each other. If they were connected to the right runic array, which I've also perfected, they can communicate with multiple other magitypes." The goblin's jaw dropped. It was the first emotion I'd even seen on a goblin's face besides annoyance.

"I'd like a demonstration." The goblin said.

"Certainly, just use the other magitype, and send a message." The goblin pushed a button, and henpecked a hello. The other one received it, and I displayed the message.

"I'll be right back." The goblin said, and ran out of the room. He came back ten minutes later.

"My superiors tell me that I have permission to help you retain the services of a solicitor, but we want twenty percent of the gross profit." I laughed.

"Five percent, net."

"Eighteen percent, gross."

"Eight percent, net."

"Ten percent gross."

"Ten percent net, with option and first rights of refusal on any other inventions I produce."

"Deal." We drafted and signed a contract. I left. My next step was Madam Malkins. I ordered several bespoke suits made of their finest material, and robes to match, and a full wardrobe of muggle clothes. I also purchased a pair of dragonskin boots.

I had ransacked the Room for a pensieve, and using this and occlumency, I traveled back through fifty some odd years of memories, back when I was originally ten, and I'd began reading through the Potter books. I wanted to find Tom's father, and found the name of the town. After going to a muggle library, I found the location of Little Hangleton, by Exeter, not farm from the coast. Then I summoned the Knight Bus, and away I went.

I arrived there, and found the Riddle's house. Mansions on hills were uncommon. I trooped up to the mansion, and knocked on the door. I made answered, and I put on my best world weary orphan face.

"Excuse me marm, but is Tom Riddle in?"

"Which one?"

"There's two?" I asked innocently.

"Yes, Tom Riddle the Younger, and the Older."

"I believe the younger ma'am." I said, pushing just a bit of compulsion into my voice, and placing a suggestion of urgency into her mind with legilimency.

She nodded, and went to fetch him. It was like looking at me, or else what I would look like after I grew up. Tall, pale skinned, chiseled features. Chestnut brown hair, and hazel eyes. He didn't have the muscle tone I had, but I can see why Merope bewitched him.

"Tom Riddle?" I asked, he nodded, and I instantly made eye contact, and entered his mind.

"Yes, who are you?"

"I believe your my father." I said. Recognition set in, and then I replaced the cruel dismissal with one of confusion.

"What?" He said.

"My mother. I was going through the letter she left me, you see, I'm an orphan. She died when I was born. I found a letter in a box of things the orphanage had for me. It mentioned your name, and Little Hangleton.

"Merope, she's dead?" He asked. I allowed him to keep the feelings of revulsion about Merope's ensorcellment of him. But I forced feelings of shocked disbelief that their union had produced a child.

"Yes, sir, are you my father?" I asked. I forced feelings of acceptance into his thoughts.

"I must be." He half muttered, and stood aside.

"Come in, I want you to meet my parents." He said, I followed him into the house. His parents were elderly.

I knew that the Gaunts were nearby, thus, even if the DMLE picked up magic. It wouldn't be from my wand. The maid had gone away. Wand in hand, in a flash, my privacy suite of wards was up.

I stunned the three riddles, bound them with incarcerous, and rennervated them one by one.

The imperios later, and I was the long last son and grandson they yearned for, and they wholeheartedly accepted that I was a wizard. This, backed up my a little rearrangement of their thought processes, and I was happily welcome into the family home. I was given a room in the manor. I unpacked my belongings and settled in. My dear grandmother immediately took my clothes shopping to "get out of those horrible rags that dreadful place had clothed me in." Her words, not mine.

A week later, I informed my new found father that I was off to my dear friends, the Pevensies for the remainder of the summer.

I apparted to Diagon, and took the Knight Bus to the address Peter had supplied me with. The Pevensie home was nice, a two story brick house with three bedrooms. Their mother was away for the day, but was expecting me.

"How's everyone's summer?" I said.

"Absolutely dreadful." Edmund said.

"Mine's been great." I replied.

"What, how?" Susan asked.

"I found my birth father." I replied.

Susan narrowed her eyes.

"Tom, what did you do?" She asked. I explained to them the situation.

"At least you're out of that horrid orphanage." Lucy remarked. We'd done worse. The only stopping Calormen from outright going to war with us was our control over a few select nobles. Peter and Susan nodded. Edmund didn't like it, but he was used to mine and Lucy's plots. His hands weren't totally clean after all.

"Tom, I've got a question." Edmund said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Have you been able to do wandless magic since coming back?" I shook my head.

"I'm afraid not, but I have been able to determine what's amiss." I said.

"Prey tell." She said.

"Wandless mages rely on Circumstances. It's a method of placing yourself in the universe, and channeling your magic. When I was translating wand movements into the proper gestures for invocation, I was during so under Narnian Circumstances. I simply need to adjusted for Earth."

"But, Tom, it took you ages to come up with the wandless spells we use."

"Yes, Susan, it did, but that was starting from scratch. I have a ground work to base off of. I need perhaps six months, maybe less, and I'll be able to once again perform those spells. Of course, when I've adjust the gestures appropriately, I'll send them you and Edmund so you may begin to fix the mistakes in your own."

"Thank goodness," She said, and I nodded.

"Now, Lucy, Peter tells me you've been accepted into Hogwarts?" I asked her, and she nodded. I gave her a hug in congratulations.

"Excellent, and you still have the wand I made for you?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Of course, I want a wand from Ollivanders." Lucy said.

"That isn't even a question."

"And a trunk, like yours." She said.

"Which one?"

"The one that allows me to carry thousands upon thousands of coins out of the royal treasury." She smirked.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"Oh Tom, you can't fool any of us. We knew something was going to happen. What has bothered me for absolute years though, is how you knew we were going to Narnia in the first place." I froze.

"What?"

"Oh come off it, Tom. You were so prepared. No one has a solution for everything. The four us knew you somehow knew, but we didn't know how."

"Would you believe me if I told you I was a seer."

"And I'm the bloody queen." Susan said.

"Well, you are." I said.

"No, I was." Susan said primly. Her voice had a certain edge to it.

"Do you think they're okay?" She asked.

"Edward and Shaun?" I asked. She nodded. The jovial mood turned somber.

"Honestly, I don't know." I replied.

"It's been years already, hasn't it." Edmund stated, matter of factly, and sniffed. For Edmund, this was tantamount to bursting into tears. I knew from his and his sisters letters that he missed Harpina and his son deeply.

"I don't know. Time moves funny there. Hardly any time passed while we were gone, but years passed there."

"And weeks passed in a day." Peter said. I nodded sadly. I missed my son with a burning passion. He had performed accidental magic for the first time just before we had left, and I couldn't wait until I could teach him.

"I want to go back." Susan said, unshed tears in her eyes.

"We all do." I replied, and pulled her in close.

"Do you think we ever will?" She asked me, her voice was muffled against my shirt. I had hit my first growth spurt since arriving. I patted her on the back.

"Susan, I'm sure, if the Kings and Queens of Narnia are ever needed again, we will return."

"My son needs his mother. That should be reason enough." She said. She backed away from me. I silently nodded. He needed his mother as much as he needed his fathers.

"I miss Cad." Lucy said. It hit me then that I hadn't visited Salazar at all since returning. Some half forgotten memory made me think I need to ask him about something, but I brushed it off.

We lapsed into silence, each preferring our own thoughts to speaking.

Summer passed, and soon it was time to take Lucy to Diagon. The four Pevensies went. Peter was in charge of them, yet again their mother was at work. We grabbed Lucy's books, as well as mine and Peter's. I got both of them a full new set of wizarding clothing of the same quality as mine, finally after grabbing Lucy's trunk, and her conning me into an extended knapsack, and grabbing four more of them, one for each of us. We went into Ollivander's.

"Ah, Mr. Pevensie and Mr. Riddle. Tell me, how have your brother wands been cooperating? Have they crossed in battle at all? Have you been polishing them regularly?" Ollivander said, there was a suggestive leer in his eye that I didn't like.

"Our wands get along just fine, Mr. Ollivander." Peter said stiffly.

"Oh, I'm sure that they do, Mr. Pevensie." Ollivander replied. Creepy bastard was creepy.

"Now, what brings you to my shop?" He asked.

"My sister, Lucy. She's starting Hogwarts soon, and we'd like to purchase one for her." He said. Ollivander snapped his fingers, a dozen measuring tapes descended.

"Why would she need another wand, when one already has her allegiance?" He asked.

"In fact, it's on her person. May I see it, Miss Pevensie" He asked. Lucy produced the wand I'd commissioned for her.

"My, how curious. It seems as though this has belonged to you for years. 9 Inches, surprisingly firm. Quite powerful, and the craftsmanship! What's it composed of? Who created it?" He asked.

"Dragon heartstring, and rowan. I'm not at liberty to say who exactly made it." She replied.

"Hmm, a powerful combination. An excellent wand for healing, or for harm. The heartstring is an interesting choice, you have quite the wand there. Miss Pevensie, if you ever come in contact with the wandmaker, give him my regards will you?" He said, and Lucy nodded. I paid for him for his silence, and we left Diagon. After seeing the Pevensies home, I apparated back to Riddle Manor, packed my own possessions and went to bed.

I met the Pevensies in the train station on September 1st. Edmund and Susan's trains didn't leave for almost an hour after the Express would depart. We met Reg and Minnie, and Peter introduced him to his siblings.

Suddenly, Lucy jumped.

"Ow!"

"What's wrong?" Susan said.

"Something pinched me!" Lucy complained.  
"Hey, stop pulling!" Peter told me suddenly. I had grabbed ahold of him earlier, but my hands were at my side.

"I'm not touching you." I said. I felt it on the air then, a sudden tugging sensation.

"That feels like magic." Lucy said.

"Quick! Everybody, hold hands!" Lucy grabbed unto Susan, who grabbed unto me. I grasped Edmund's hand, who quickly joined his with Peter's. He reached out to Reg, and Minnie was quick to follow. The platform became a blur and vanished. The next thing I knew, we were on a beach. We all shared smiles, and ran to the water, shedding our school clothes. We played and frolicked in the waves. Edmund suddenly frowned, and looked up.

"Where do suppose we are?" He said.

"Where do you think?" Peter asked.

"I don't remember any ruins in Narnia." Edmund said, and pointed towards a ruined stone tower.


	31. Chapter 31

Two updates today.

We walked up to the stone tower. It was old, and aged and white, and covered in moss at some points. It was large, and there was a staircase, that was covered by rubble halfway up.

"It can't be." I muttered. I went to the base of the tower, and blew the sand away that had covered the bottom of staircase with a ventus spell. On the very bottom, there were a series of runes. These were once as pristine as the tower. I'd overseen their carving one, and they covered the entire base. Something had happened to blacken the runes, a few were outright gone by the force created when they had overloaded.

"This is a Watchtower." I said grimly.

"No. It can't be." Susan said. We rose at once.

"The boys!" The five of us said at once.

"Susan, your palm." I said. She looked confused for a moment, recognition set in, and she nodded. I drew blood from my own with magic, and then took some from her's.

"Lucy?" I asked. She had already grabbed Edmund's palm and had done the same.

"Pater et Mater sanguinem, locus." I said, the spell flew into the air, and instead of point us towards anyone destination, fell to the ground. I saw that Lucy's own spell had failed.

"What does that mean Tom?" Susan said, there was an edge of hysteria in her voice.

It meant that within my range of power, no one lived with that paternity.

"I'm not sure, but I know how to find them?"

"How." She demanded.

"We need to find the castle. If we can find my compass, it will lead us right to them."

Edmund did something odd. He placed his bloodied hand into the water, and muttered a spell. The ocean pulsed with his magic, and I felt the ripples spread out.

"What was that, Ed?"

"Harpina and I devised a way for me to call her if I was ever in need. If she's here, than she'll feel my call." He said.

"Do you need to stay here?" I asked. He shook his head.

"She'll be able to find me. She's always been able to." He said. There was more to that story than he was willing to tell, once I would have been pressing him for the details, but some secrets are secret for a reason.

We wandered the beach, and went up the hill. When we were here last, this path had been teaming with the various castle denizens. Now it was silent. It was eerie seeing a place so full of life empty aside from the cries of gulls, and the crash of waves on the rocks below.

We reached the top of the hill. More ruins awaited us. Suddenly I frowned. I reached out with my senses. I could feel magic in the air, powerful. A hum like static.

"You lot feel that?" I said. Heads nodded.

"Revealeo!" I said, jutting my wand in the air. For a brief second, an afterimage of Cair Paravel, whole and hale flickered and vanished.

"Peter?" I said.

"Expecto Patronum, Nontius!" He said. A brilliant roaring white lion came into being.

"To the Inhabitants of Cair Paravel, Seat of Narnia. I bid thee tidings, to the guardians of this keep, I commend you. I am High King Peter the Magnificent, Lord of the Clear Northern Skies, Knight of the Lion, and I hath returned!" He said, and the Lion ran off.

There were a few minutes wait. Then another Patronus ran out. This one was a gryphon.

"Approach King of Narnia. Welcome home." The Patronus said in a woman's voice. We walked towards the castle, as we did magic washed over us. The castle was whole and hale. Older than we had left it, but it was there. Relief washed over me.

We entered into the greeting hall of the castle. Two leopards and a badger greeted us.

"Greetings King, our lady has bid you to wait here." The badger said.

Soon a woman came down the stairs. She had the honey blond hair Susan and Peter favored, but those eyes, they were like staring into a mirror. She wasn't large, but she was well built. A sword I recognized as Rhindon was on her hip. On her neck, in its case, was my compass. She was young, perhaps in her early twenties. We were not much older when we had returned to Earth. She was dressed in a fine gown. A floaty, airy thing that was certainly not of Narnian design. Her skin was deeply tanned, it spoke of long summers training with bow and sword.

She stopped.

"The Horn worked." She breathed.

"Who are you?" Susan asked.

"Where is my son?" She said.

"Peace, your grace." The lady said, and curtseyed.

"I am Queen Lacy, of the Line of Edward, Daughter of Oak. Lady of Cair Paravel, True Queen of Narnia."

"True Queen?"

"You have been gone sometime, my Kings and Queens. There is much to discuss. I recognize Sir Thomas, but who are those two?" She said, nodding towards Minnie and Reg.

"This is Lord Reginald, Heir to the House of Longbottom, Apprentice in Herbology. She is Lady Minerva McGonagall, of the Great Highlands, Mistress in Training of Transfiguration. You may consider them friends of Narnia, and protectorates of the crown, my Queen." I said with a bow.

"Sir Thomas, I've been well warned of your silver tongue. I bid you welcome to your home." Queen Lacy said with a smile.

"Come, we've prepared some refreshments. We shall talk of matters of state over tea." She said, and we retired to what had been our old meeting room. We were served tea, and for once, it tasted right.

"Now, what news of the Kingdom do you bear?" Peter said.

"Tell me, High King Peter, how long has it been since you have last walked these halls?" She asked.

"Nearly a year." He said.

"For us, since you have last reigned, nearly eight hundred years have come and gone."

"The ruins?" I said.

"What did you know of Telmar?"

"Friends of the Crown. We had a relationship with them. We were helping them pursue their freedom from Calormen reign."

"Friends no more then. They are the reason for our current predicament. You see, they betrayed us."

"How?" Lucy breathed. I'd seen that look in her eyes before. It promised violence.

"Calormen promised them their freedom. Fifteen years after you departed, they betrayed us. Telmarine mages attacked the main runic array our mirrors used. The watchtowers along the south and southwestern borders were manned by Telmarines and Narnians, they slaughtered our guards there. Our communications down, we didn't know our defences were weakened. At the time, our forces were in the North because of yet another incursion by the giants. They attacked through the south. Put the shuddering woods to the torch. Killed any narnians they came across. They had been planning this for quite some time. Soon, they had conquered nearly half our country. Prince Shaun was a formidable mage, and he saved us during the second Battle of Beruna, at the cost of his own life. From there, we went into hiding. It has been a series of skirmishes, and guerilla tactics since. Calormen ships from Narrow Haven staged an attack on the castle with cannons loaded with magical shot stolen from our own armory.. Our coastal watchtowers at the time were Weeks ago, a change finally came."

"What happened to my son?" Susan said.

"Edward was a great king, and a powerful mage. He wove the enchantments that allowed us to hide this castle. He taught us a spell found in his father's notes that would hide our homes. During the tenth year of war, he went to the Plains of Beruna under guise of truce. It was a Telmarine attack. Him, and the royal basilisk, Caduceus held the line to ensure his forces retreated. He had a son before he died." Susan sucked in a sharp breath. It felt like the world crashed down around me. Edward, Cad, they were dead? My boy, My basilisk. I felt a lump form in my throat, and swallowed desperately. I threw every bit of sorrow behind my occlumency barriers."

"How exactly did they die?" I asked. I had to know.

"Caduceus suffered great wounds during the battle. King Edward lost his life while trying to cast a spell of great battle magic. It is said he burned alive in purple fire, but before he did, he finished the spell that destroyed a quarter of the telmarine force.

"My Elixir, it should have saved Cad." Lucy said.

"I'm sorry my queen, due to Caduceus' magical nature, the ElixirTr failed to work. He died soon after returning to the Castle." I could feel my magic rise along with anger, and sadness. I needed to destroy something soon. Those fucking bastards. I had half a mind to destroy Telmarine. It wouldn't be much honestly. I'd been doing reading on transfiguration, and had come up with some interesting spells that just begged for a live fire test. Judging from the dark looks on the faces of the four Pevensies, they agreed with my sentiment.

"What was the change you spoke of?" Edmund asked. His voice was quiet.

"I am that change." A male voice said. We turned, he was dark haired, and had a deep tanned look. His eyes were like chips of flint. He had to be no older than fifteen, perhaps twenty.

"Miraz, the Regent of the Telmarines in Narnia, has an heir. I am the prince of the Telmarines, Caspian the Tenth. I escaped with help from a Narnian spy in the castle. I begged for asylum, and Queen Lacy opened the doors for me." He, Caspian said.

" In a fortnight's time, we ride for Beruna where a meeting of Narnians has been called. They want to take their country back from the Telmarines. We need magic to defeat the mages of Telmarine. I blew the Horn because the tales of you five are great, as is the magic you wielded. King Peter, the Swordsmith. Queen Susan, the Battle Mage. King Edmund, the Spymaster. Queen Lucy, foremost healer. Lord Thomas, the Dragon Slayer, the Great Enchanter. Those are the stories I was raised on. The stories I had heard since I was a babe at my father's knee. I called because now, more than ever, Narnia needs its heroes."

"Tom, is this true?" Minnie asked. I nodded grimly.

"What weapons do we have?"

"Much of your weaponry has been lost. We have mostly crossbows and swords. A few trebuchet. We also have your treasures of old, stored away in the Royal Treasury." Lacey said. Then she took Rhindon off her hip and went to her knees.

"King Peter, this sword belongs to you." She said. He took the sword from her grasp.

"I have weapons." I said.

"But, I need privacy to bridge the gulf from where I stored them. Take us to the treasury, and leave us." I said. Lacey nodded and escorted the seven of us to the treasury. Then she left us. I threw up every privacy spell I knew.

Five chests were waiting for us. I opened my chest. There were books, my dragon bone bow, and my black sword along with my pistol belt. My dragon leather armor. My old hunting leathers. Those were the only armor that fit. I put those on, and then I equipped my weapons.

Lucy had pulled out one of her old dresses.

"I was so tall." She said softly.

"Well, you were older then." Susan said.

"As opposed to hundreds of years later when you're younger." Edmund said, and shook his head.

Lucy grabbed her Elixir out of the chest. This was followed by her daggers. She quickly put those on her belt she found in her chest.

Susan grabbed her bow, and her quiver. The enchantments had stood the test of time, and the arrows were as deadly as I had left them, as was the quiver.

Peter took his shield from the chest.

"Now, where's that armory you've been hiding from us." Peter said.

"What do you mean?"  
"Tom, don't think I didn't notice that gold vanishing from the treasury. Earmarked for construction, or whatever, all with your signature. The missing guns and weapons. You never fooled any of us." Peter said. His tone firmed.

I frowned.

"I can't get away with anything." I said.

"Lord Tom's armory is hidden behind the door in the treasury." I said, letting them in on the secret." By their eyes, a door appeared.

We went to it, and opened it.

Heaps upon heaps of gold, racks of armor and weapons. Every prototype I'd ever invented that hadn't exploded. Copies of every invention I'd made. Hundreds of flintlocks and muskets. Quivers of enchanted arrows and bows charmed to strike true. A dozen ballista and cannons. Years of squirelling and secreting away various weapons and armor. All the books I'd raided from Her castle years before. Every artifact I'd deemed to dark. They were all here.

In the center was a solid wooden chest. I went over to the chest and checked. The dragon's blood and the various reagents I had amassed over the years were still fresh under preservation spells.

I took my knapsack off my back, and took out one of my empty shrunken trunks.

"Cave extremis maxima!" I intoned, the trunk expanded and swelled, and then went back to its normal shape.

"Pack!" I said, and three quarters of my hidden armory and all of my books went into the trunk. The room shrunk in response. I reached out to the fidelius surrounding the room, and with a murmured finite canceled the charm.

There was still enough weapons to outfit maybe a hundred people in the room, and maybe a hundred thousand crescents, lions, and galleons. None of the flintlocks and muskets were my truly powerful creations. They simply had reloading, bottomless ammo, and accuracy spells on them.

"What are you going to do with the rest?" Lucy asked.

"Caspian is a Telmarine. They invaded and burned our lands. I want to help the Narnians, but afterward, I'm putting every Telmarine on this land to the sword." I said. The four Pevensie's nodded grimly. Reg and Minnie looked shocked.

"Tom, they're innocents." Reg said.

"No, Reg, they're invaders. They have no place in my home, and they will learn that lesson before I leave."

We left the treasury after grabbing the Pevensie's belongings.

"I have opened the door to my armory." I told Lacey, and she nodded.

"What's our next steps?" I asked her.

"We ride for Aslan's Keep in a fortnight. I've sent word through eagle and owl, and mirror. Every Narnia who wishes to join in the battle will be there."

I looked at Reg and Minnie. They had come along since I'd begun training them, but they needed to be ready for battle.

"I'll spend two weeks training them."

"Sir Thomas, your mind is needed in other matters." Lacey said. Caspian was at her side. I narrowed my eyes. A thought occurred to me, and I looked in her eyes. She had no occlumency barriers. I caught a flash of something, before her thoughts shifted away.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"We have ideas for enchantments, but your experience would be appreciated."

"I can split my time between the two evenly." I said, my tone booked no room for argument. She nodded, and I found myself in a flurry of meetings and training that made the two weeks pass in a uneventful blur.


	32. Chapter 32

We left Cair Paravel early in the morning. We made the journey by carriage. There were three total. Narnia was still prosperous, just not nearly as it had been. Had this been during our reign, we would have made the journey by portal. Mid-Day of the first day of our journey we stopped for a brief lunch.

Lucy suddenly shot to her feet. She was facing away from us. Lacey sat next to her.

"Lucy, what is it?" Edmund asked. His hand straying to his sword.

"It's Aslan!" She said excitedly. We all turned. The forest was empty.

"Can you still see him?" Lacey asked, there was a tone of indulgence to her voice.

"He's gone." She said, she seemed unsure of herself.

"Are you sure he was even there?" Lacey asked, in disbelief. I murmured a spell, searching for traces of magic. There wasn't anything present. That's not to mean there wasn't.

"He wanted us to follow him."

"Lucy, there are other lions in these woods." Peter said.

"I'm not crazy. I think I'd know Aslan when I saw him."

"Who's Aslan?" Reg asked uncertainty.

"An old myth." Lacey said dismissively.

"He is not a myth!" Susan said.

"Beg pardon, your highness, but he hasn't been seen since you five abandoned us. For all intents and purposes, he is a myth." Lacey said.

"Aslan raised an enormous army to help us defeat Jadis. Without him, my brother would be a statue and this country would still be frozen in deep winter. He is not a myth." Susan said and stood. Lacey stood as well.

"Aslan was gone while Telmarine and Calormen soldiers attack this country mercilessly. If he isn't a myth, then he is long dead. Even the help we ask for came in the form of seven children. If Aslan isn't a myth, and is some sort of god, then He is a useless one. The great lion indeed." Lacey said with a scoff.

"I may look like a girl, but I can just as easily take you over my knee." Susan said.

"I'd like to see you try." Lacey replied. Peter made to stop them, but I gave a gentle shake of my head. This girl needed to be put in her place.

They stood for a moment. Lacey was the first to strike out with magic. Susan easily deflected the spell and threw a wandless banisher out that Lacey blocked with a shield spell. There was an odd twist to her hand when she did that that I certainly didn't recognize from my teachings. Susan quickly closed in on her, throwing out mostly harmless spells. Finally she was close enough, in a lighting fast move, she swept her leg out, and knocked Lacey off balance. She followed her to the ground, and put her hand on her throat.

"Had you been anyone but a descendant of my Edward, you would have been dead before you got the first spell off." Susan said, and helped the queen to her feet. The day passed by, and we arrived at our final campsite before arriving in Beruna.

We made camp and put up protective enchantments. We took turn standing guard. I had mid watch. Peter relieved me, and I went outside to stand watch. I placed warming charms on myself, downed half a wit sharpening potion, and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I walked along the perimeter, checking the enchantments. I had just completed a round when I saw Caspian slipping out of the carriage the queen was housed in. I gave him a look. He shrugged and went back to his carriage.

The watch passed uneventfully. I stood guard for three hours, slipped back in our carriage, and woke Edmund. I gave him the remainder of the wit sharpener. He nodded, downed the vial and walked outside.

I fell back to sleep for a few hours, and tossed and turned.

We arrived mid the next day. There was guard, and much fan fair. The leader of the Narnian troops was a, mouse of all things, named Reepicheep.

"He's so cute!" Lucy gushed.

"Who said that?!" The mouse said.

"Sorry." Lucy said sheepishly.

" Oh, uh your majesty. With the greatest respect, I do believe courageous, courteous, or chivalrous might more befit a knight of Narnia." The mouse said. He took of his had, and with a twirl of his hand bowed.

"Well, at least we know some of you can handle a blade." Peter said.

"Yes, indeed. And I have recently put it to good use acquiring weapons for your army, sire." Reepicheep said.

"Good, we'll need every sword we can get." Peter replied.

We entered the keep.

"It may not be what you're used to, your Majesties, but aside from Cair Paravel, this is the most defensible location we have.

"The wall carvings are curious." Minerva said. I took a closer look. They were reliefs of us, in all our glory.

"What is this place?" Lucy asked Caspian.

"You don't know?" He lit a torch and led us down a dark tunnel. At the end of the tunnel, he lit another torch, this one spread along the room. There were carvings of us, and fellow Narnians. In the back of the room, there was a carving of Aslan. In the center of the room, on a dais, lay the stone table. Cracked in two from Aslan's resurrection. Lucy slowly walked toward the relief, and placed her hand on the carving.

"He must know what He's doing." Lucy said.

I placed my hand on her shoulder.

"I think it's up to us now."

Some time later, we stood in another room in the keep. A wooden table had been brought in. We were conferring with the leader of the armed forces in Narnia the mages were lead by a hag name of Ceria. Reepicheep represented the infilitry. Susan had taken command of the archers. A centaur by the name of Glenstorm was in charge of our calvary. Edmund had taken command of the siege engines. Peter and I were coordinating the overall war. Lacey had demurred during the council, stating that her talents lay in diplomacy, and not warfare. Which, as far as I could tell, was a load of mooncalf dung, but I wasn't going to call her on it. The relationship between Lacey and Susan was frosty, and they prefered to stay out of each other's way.

"It's only a matter of time. Miraz‟ men and war machines are on their way. That means those same men aren't protecting his castle. We can strike the castle, and use that as a staging grounds for the rest of the war." Peter said.

"What do you propose we do, Sire?"

"We-"

"Our-" Caspian and Peter said.

Peter looked at Caspian.

"Telmarine, your kin got us into this mess, let us figure it out." I said.

"Our only hope is to take that castle before they take us." Peter said.

"But that's crazy, no one has ever taken that castle." Caspian said.

"There's always a first time." Peter replied.

"We'll have the element of surprise." A dwarf named Trumpkin chimed in.

"But we have the advantage here." Caspian insisted.

"My brother is right. If we take that castle and fortify ourselves, we could hold them off indefinitely."

"I, for one, feel safer underground." A badger named trufflehunter said.

"Look, I appreciate what you‟ve done, but this isn't a fortress, it's a tomb." Peter told Caspian.

"Yes, and if the Telmarines are smart, they'll just starve us out." Edmund said. I had to agree with him. Even to grow plants magically I needed seed stock, and water, and fertile soil. None of these were present in our current environs. The Telmarine castle had been built over the ruins of Jadis' keep. It was well fortified. A long bridge connected the castle to land and the only way out that wasn't by flight. The bridge was stone, but protected by three guardhouses and gates made of charmed steel. In addition to the these, the fortresses had walls inside walls, perfect for killboxes or other traps. It was an fortress through and through, but… The wheels began turning in my head.

"We could collect nuts!" A squirrel by the name of Patterwig said.

"Oh yes, and throw them at the Telmarines! Shut up!" Reepicheep told the squirrel.

"Sire, I think you know where I stand on this." Reepicheep said.

"If I can get your troops in, can you handle the guards?" Peter asked Glenstorm.

"Or die trying, my liege." Glenstorm said.

"No one has to die." I said, my plan coalescing.

"Peter, give me an hour to look at something in one of my texts, and an hour more to do the math. I may have a solution to this that won't involve any Narnian lives being lost." I said. He nodded. I pulled out my library trunk, climbed down in at, and went to my chemistry texts. I had bought these in preparation for my A levels. After reading through a certain section again, and creating a quick spell. I conjured a rabbit and a glass cage. The spell worked. I smiled, and climbed back up the trunk. I looked at him and nodded.

"What's your plan?" He asked, and I told him. The room filled with silent shock.

"You can do that?" Glenstorm said, and I nodded.

"For them it will be like falling asleep." I replied. We began to put my plan into action.

Before we left for Miraz's castle, I spoke to Reg and Minnie.

"I need to know how comfortable you are with taking a life." I said, point blank.

"These Telmarines, they're the bad sort?" Minnie asked.

"They killed hundreds of loyal narnians, burned cubs and faun children in their beds. Minerva, they're the worst sort." I said. Her face settled into a grim line.

"Mate, I'm a Longbottom. We get the job done. My cousins in the bloody war back home. If this helps these people and creatures take back their home, I'll help." Reg said.

"You won't have to see anyone die. Just say a spell. I'll make sure your conscience is clear afterward. I'll obliviate if you want." I told them. I needed every wand I could for this. I hated using two children, but Aslan used us after a fashion, didn't he? Needs must.

We rode to Miraz's castle.

"There are women and children there." Caspian warned us, for what seemed like the million time. I was fed up with it.

"And women and children burned alive when Telmarine scum destroyed that forest." I snarled, pointing my wand at his throat. I had left Jadis' behind on Earth when I had gone to Hogwarts, not seeing the need for it.

"Now, young Caspian, you can either watch, and take back this castle and your throne. Or I'll put you to sleep and wake the child when the adults are done. Take. Your. Pick." I said. I was over this toerag. I hadn't forgotten he was Telmarine. The only reason why I hadn't ended him violently was because my descendant had some sort of infatuation with him.

"I'll watch."

"Good." I said.

Darkness covered our approach. Reg, Min, Peter, and Lucy were at equidistant points at the tree line surrounding the castle. I activated the mirror to initiate the four way call.

"Begin casting first spell." I said. The I held my wand aloft, and said a word.

"Nebulous!" There wasn't a light emitted from our wands, but there wouldn't be for this stage.

Soon, a thick rolling bank of fog crept utterly covering the castle.

"Next spell." I spoke into my mirror.

"Protego Maxima, inversi!" I said. This was known as the prisoner's keeper. It was used in Ministry holding cells to keep prisoners from escaping. It created a Protego maxima bubble, but instead of keeping everything out, it kept everything in. This was crucial for the next step.

Soon, the castle was covered in the shield.

"Spell three." I said, and each of us cast a wide area inverted bubblehead charm. I target the area I wanted to effect in my mind, and concentrated on the entire fog bank that had been contained in the shield spell.

"Fourth spell." I said. This didn't require any wand movement, just a simple incantation I had created on the fly.

"Oxygeni ete carbo carbonis monom totalis." I whispered. I felt the spell take hold.

"It's working." Lucy said.

"Same here." Peter replied.

"I've got it to work." Reginald said.

"As do I." Minerva replied.

Carbon Monoxide is deadly in excess of 35 parts per million for an hour. My spell put it at total saturation in five minutes. In twenty, there wasn't a soul alive in the castle. Caspian's instructor had escaped weeks before, and we had told our spies, mostly the Mice who lived in the castle to leave.

I concentrated on the spell, and ended it, as did the other four. We waited another two hours before moving in and cancelling the spells. We sent Reepicheep in with three other mice. He reported it as successful.

"Keep the bodies of the men. I want them. Burn the rest." I told Peter.

"What do you want them for?" He asked.

"As last resort, dark even for me." I replied. He blanched, but nodded. It took a day for us to remove the Calormen women and children from the castle. I put the men in stasis charms, threw them in a trunk, and put that back in my pocket. I had never experimented with raising the dead before, but I would like to experiment. Now that I had test subjects, it would be easier.

Finally we entered the Keep, and made our way up to Miraz's room. We found a ledger, and I read it. My face went white. I turned to Peter. Caspian had returned to Aslan's Keep to begin rallying the troops to move.

"What's wrong?" Lucy said.

"Miraz sent requests to Telmar and Calormen for reinforcements. They're on the move. They'll be here in a week." I told her. Her face went pale.

"We don't have much time then." Susan said, and I shook my head.

"We need to get everyone in this castle, now." Edmund said. I quickly sketched a portal into the wall, and opened a portal to Aslan's Keep. We stepped through and went to work.

AN: Two chapters left in Caspian, maybe. 


	33. Chapter 33

First of Four Updates today.

We rushed through the portal and quick held a conference of war. We informed them

what was going on, and then began evacuating everyone. We had the women and child through, and were three quarters of the way done with it, when I felt magic begin building. Reg and Minnie were already at Miraz's castle. It was coming from the room the stone table was held in. The Pevensies met me midway there and we rushed into the room.

"One drop of Adam's blood, and you free me. Then I am yours, my king." A voice that I hoped to never hear again echoed. Ceria was present, as was a dwarf and a werewolf. The entire wall were Aslan's relief was, was now covered in ice. In the center of a drawn circle there was a pulsing purple gem. We ran into the room just as Caspian grasped her Hand. Lucy slashed the Dwarf's throat with her dagger. The hag died from a Peter's killing curse. A slash of Edmund's hand and the werewolf was split in two. The room pulsed with magic, and power. The entire sheet of ice glowed blue white, and wrapped around Caspian. He turned around, his skin had turned pale, and his eyes had turned into two orbs of blue.

"Ah, Peter, dear, I have missed you." The witch said, and threw him against the wall with a wave of her hand. Then she turned to me.

"Now, little Tommy, I believe you have something that belongs to me."  
"Avada Kedavra!" I shouted. She levitated half of the stone table and it blocked the killing curse.

"Now, is that anyway to treat an old friend?" She said, shards of ice formed midair and shot towards me. I stopped them with a jet of flame, and threw a dozen conjured silver of mine back that she vanished. I blocked a spell that would have cut me in half.

"Phosphourfenian Hasta!" I shouted, a lance of white fire flew through the air. She smiled. A field of magic enclosed it, and it burned itself out. A dark purple curse shot from Lucy's wand, and it hit the Witch. The witch growled in pain. Her attention had been diverted to me, and she hadn't seen the spell.

"That wasn't very valiant of you Lucy." She said, and lifted her into mid air magically. I heard something crack, and Lucy let out a shriek of pain. I fired with my flintlock, and the witch dropped Lucy to the ground to block my shot. Peter summoned her out of the way, and he hoisted her over her shoulder and ran out of the room.

She turned suddenly, whirling around with inhuman speed. Edmund had his sword, and was about to run her through. She picked him up in the air and tossed him magically, ass over elbows. I caught him with an arresto momentum.

"Edmund, hasn't anyone ever told that nothing ever happens the same way twice?" She asked, and made a gesture with her hands. Both halves of the stone table rose in the air, and formed into several spears.

Suddenly, there was a flash of purple light. A man appeared, he looked like me, but he had Peter's sandy hair. Purple fire wreathed his hands.

"You won't harm them, Witch." The man said, and threw Jadis backwards.

The man looked at me.

"Dad, listen I don't have long."  
:"Edward? How?"

"Not important. The spell holding it at bay won't last. The niffin is more powerful than I thought. We could only guarantee a few minutes. Bind her and run." He said, the purple fire encased him and he flickered away like an after image. He screamed in pain, the purple fire became blue. A cold look came across his features, and then a look of shock. He vanished as quickly as he came.

"Petrificus Totalus! Stupefy! Incarcerous! Incarcerous Catenis! Immobulus!" I yelled, covering the witch with every binding spell I could think of.

Edmund scrambled to his feet, and we ran out of that room. I stood before the door.

"Protego Maxima, Fianto Duri, Protego Horribilis, Cave Inimicum, Protego Diabolica!" I shouted, blue fire came into being. I ran down the corridor.

"My lord, what happened?" One of the satyrs asked.

"Something horrible. Everyone, who isn't through the portal when I get there will be left behind. Go!" At each intersection, I threw up those spells, praying to Aslan, to Ember, Umber, whatever God that would hear me to last those enchantments last until we could escape. Nearly half of our remaining forces escaped. The Pevensies had left. She ripped through my enchantments. I had enough time to destroy the portal and make a portkey before she was in the room.

"Oh, Tom, have all the other kiddies left you behind?" She said. Even now, all traces of Caspian were melting away, and the Witch looked like some unholy mix of their two features.

"Avada Kedavra!" I yelled, the killing curse hit a minotaur dragged into its path. I tasted bile.

A centaur charged her, and he was ripped in two. The other minotaur that charged her was turned inside out. Somehow, she kept him alive for that, and I heard a low bellow from inside the sack of meat. I conjured up fire and daggers, and she blocked them.

"Go, Lord Thomas!" Trufflehunter the Badger said, and leapt unto the witch.

I had cast two more spells, one was a transmutation of the air around me to glycerin, the other was a timed fire rune.

I heard Trufflehunter's dying scream as the portkey activated.


	34. Chapter 34

This chapter, specifically the last part, was like pulling teeth to write. Sorry for the delay.

The portkeyed arrived in Miraz's castle.

Instantly I was swarmed with questions. Susan was the loudest voice in the room.

"Tom, what the hell was that?" She asked.  
"Jadis is back."  
"I know about that. Were I not heading the evacuation, I would have been there. Edmund told me you saw Edward. How was he? Is he okay?" She asked.  
"I don't know," I replied.  
"What do you mean you don't know?" She said.  
"He's alive, at least I think he is. I'm not sure if he's okay. But he's alive."  
"How isn't he okay?"  
I dreaded what I was going to say next.  
"Susan, I think he's a niffin," I said.  
"No, no. Impossible. He helped us. Niffins are supposed to be monsters. They aren't supposed to be children." Tears ran down her face. She wasn't the only one crying. Lacey was sobbing.  
"It's not supposed to be like this. None of this was supposed to happen. I should have never let him blow that blasted fucking horn." She sobbed.  
"If he had just listened to me, none of this would have happened. Instead, we've got seven brats that think they own the country. This wasn't the plan." She cried.  
I instantly went on high alert.  
"What plan?" I said, practically apparating to the chit. I pointed my wand at her neck.  
"What did you do?"  
She smiled, tears had stained her face.  
"Just kill me already." She said.  
"Gods know I won't be the first innocent life you took. Fucking do it. Kill me." She said.  
"Oh no. First I want to know exactly what you're talking about. Imperio." I said a haze engulfed her, and her features took on a blank look.  
"What have you been talking about?" I said, my voice cold. She fought against my imperio and broke the unforgivable.  
"You think that of all spells can break me? Try again." She said with a smirk.  
"Crucio," I said. You really had to mean it, and I did. She screamed in pain, I held her under it for a minute and then released the spell.

"Are you done?" She sneered. I put her under the spell again, and again. Finally, she trembled on the floor.  
"Stop! I'll talk!" She cried and wiped snot and blood off her face.

"Tell me what you know," I said, my voice high and cold. I was done with these games. I felt like we'd be yanked around since coming home, and I was going to get to the bottom of this.  
"Your stories aren't the only I was raised on. These Narnians, they tell the stories of King Peter, who saved us from the Giants. Lord Thomas, grand magus. King Edmund the Just. You see, my parents ensured I knew all the right stories." She said with a sneer.  
"My governess, bless her heart, told me the true stories. She told me how Lord Thomas burned every man, woman, and child in Narrow Haven to cinders and masqueraded as a god. How Queen Lucy mind raped the Calormen crown to ensure peace. How anyone that stood against the Narnian crown vanished quickly or suffered a change on thinking. The witch was cold and cruel, but at least she was upfront about her ways. You five ruled Narnia with spell and sword. As cruel and as cold as the Witch you killed. I never wanted you back here. Caspian and I were going to rule side by side as King and Queen. The only reason I gave him that purple gem was to set a trap and ensure you died! Now, agreements with Calormen and Telmarine are done and dusted. My love is dead! And you five, are still here!" She screeched and got to her feet awkwardly.  
"But Edward."  
"Your Son, Queen Susan, was as depraved and fucked up as they come. He was offered Peace at Beruna and tried to kill them all with that blasted basilisk you left him. There was a trap that day, but if he was the one who was the mastermind behind it!"

"How do you know all of this?" I said. She smiled then, a smile of all teeth and almost feral glee.  
"My Governess was of direct descent from one of those boys you left to die in that boat Lord Thomas. Do you think they believed the utter shit that you spouted? All of the Lone Islands banned against the Narnian Menace, and Calormen offered them both mages. They stole into Cair Paravel and slit Prince Shaun's throat in his sleep with help from Telmarine Mages that let them into the castle. They bound Queen Harpina with a purple gem. Jadis was so fond of those, and Calormen had acquired one. They hid that stone somewhere in a statue of her. They allowed Edward's child to live, but made sure they installed a Narnian loyal to Calormen in the castle." The Queen growled in glee.  
"My governess was a part djinn and taught me and my ancestors about the value of long planning. This whole debacle went on far too long, but that was to be over. As soon as Caspian took control of the Telmarine side of the country, we were to be wed. Then we'd reunite the country. From there, we'd march to Archenland, and take them. Soon, the whole of the world would have been united under Calormen rule." She said.

"But the reinforcements from Telmar and Calormen?" I said.  
"Away for our allies to ensure that Miraz fell. They were sick of his machinations. They wanted this war to end. To ensure that it happened, they were sending a legion of mages and soldiers to break Miraz's back and begin our first forays into Archenland."  
"You traitorous bitch," I said.  
"I'm the traitor? I'm the traitor?! You left. You left Narnian to flounder. The Bank, the Mint. As many people starved from rampant inflation as they did from Telmarine sword. There were four niffins produced from your mages dabbling with things they were not meant to. You're all hypocrites." A dam of emotions broke in the back of my mind. This wasn't right. I had been trying to help people. We'd done some bad things, but I was trying to do the right. My behavior as of late was callous, true. But I had found myself in the middle of a war. My actions here were meant to make our job easier. What had gone so wrong?  
Susan stepped forward.  
"Queen Lacey, Lady of Cair Paravel, of Narnia. I condemn you. I charge you with acts of treason against the Crown and the Kingdom. How do you plead?"  
"Guilty you hypocritical bastards! Guilty of trying to fix the mess you left behind. Guilty of dealing with the mess you-" Susan silenced her with a spell.  
Suddenly, a roar shook the room. Golden light came from everywhere, yet nowhere.  
"Enough!" His voice rang out.  
Suddenly, Aslan was in the room. A lion the size of a horse. His golden mane shone like a sun.  
The five of us went to our knees instantly, the rest of the room soon followed.  
"The Kings and Queens of Narnia shall stay, anyone else may leave." He growled his voice a low timbre that seemed like an oncoming storm. Narnians quickly made for the exit.  
I stood up and made my way to the door.  
"Not you son of Adam. You may have not been crowned a king, but you have certainly acted like one, for better or ill. You have a place in this discussion." Aslan said, and I gulped.  
"Lady Minerva, Lord Reginald. I bid you to also stay." He said. Our two friends stopped.

"When I sent for you five, the events that conspired since you have arrived, were certainly not what I wanted. You five, we not supposed to take back your thrones. You five were supposed to help the current ruler." Aslan growled. I felt shame wash over me.

"Because of your interference, because of your desire to reign, an enemy I thought long dead, has returned. Now She is stronger than before. A thousand years of work have come undone, and old prophecies are stirring back to life."  
"What do you mean?" I asked.  
"We held her at bay while Narnians escaped. I was nearly killed!" The lion turned to me and roared loudly.  
"Thomas Riddle. You. Forget. Your Place!" Aslan roared. I felt His power come down on my shoulders and fell to my knees.  
Aslan prowled back and forth, his tail lashing back and forth.  
"You five were supposed to be Narnia's greatest hope. The herald of a golden age, and the ushers of a second one. Now, Narnia's greatest foe is alive once more. The plans I had made are destroyed. I've come to take you out of this land."  
"What about us?" Lacey said.  
"Daughter of Eve, there is nothing I can do to help. What seeds I had sown are gone. Tell your Calormen and Telmar allies that Narnia has fallen. The old prophecies are made new, and to prepare themselves for a great winter."  
"Surely, don't mean that," Lacey said.  
"My Queen, I mean that and more," Aslan said.

"I'm sorry, but I have to take them home," Aslan said.  
"You're the Great Lion! You can't just abandon us in our hour of need!" She cried.  
"I have no choice. When Caspian took her hand and allowed him entry, I was weakened. Even now I can feel my strength waning. I must send them home. Then, Queen Lacey. We will talk. I promise you I will do everything in my power to help. But first, I must fix one of the mistakes I made." Aslan said. He sounded tired, old almost.

"Before we go, King Peter. Queen Susan. Lord Thomas. There is something we need to discuss." He said. The air took on a sudden shimmer, and everyone aside from the four of us froze in place.

"Children, I cannot see the entire future. But I see enough to know that you will not return to Narnia in this lifetime. You grow too old to come back." Aslan said. There was a note of finality in his tone.  
"What? No, I refuse." Susan said.  
"What do you mean, daughter of Eve?" Aslan asked.  
"I have been thrown between worlds. I have seen a child begin to grow. I have felt him kick in my womb and bled as I delivered him. Then, I had everything ripped from me. My home, my subjects. My son. Everyone I knew in Narnia is dead. Except for my son. Edward, even if he is a Niffin, is still my son. I'm staying here. In Narnia. To end Jadis' rule for a second time. To find my son and return him to his humanity."

"I cannot allow you to do that, Susan," Aslan said.  
"I wasn't seeking permission." She said.  
"Your time here is at an end, Susan. I am sorry. There are forces at work that are beyond my control. Do you think I wanted her to return? To watch your reign crumble. You are not the only one who has been hopelessly tossed between worlds. I cannot come and go as I please, and even I am beholden to rules older than I or Narnia."  
"Aslan, send me home this day. I renounce my crown. I renounce Narnia. I renounce my titles. Send me home today, and I swear, I will find you."  
"Is that a threat?"  
"A promise. You may be the great lion, but I saw you die. I saw that stone knife plunge into your heart. If it was done once, it can be done again, and I promise you on my blood, magic, and every bit of power I can scrounge up, it will be." Susan said.  
"If that is the way you feel. I can't change your mind."  
"I stand with my Queen," I said. I wanted my kingdom back, but I would trade a thousand kingdoms for my son.  
"And I stand with my sister. Let those forces you are beholden to, force you to their whims. Do not force us along." Peter said. Aslan looked like he had been struck, but he nodded.

"Lord Thomas, you will find that our deal is still binding." He told me. I nodded.

Time unfroze. Aslan sent for our clothes. The clothes we had worn to Narnia, we dressed in our school clothes. He created a portal.

"Before we go, we have some things to tell you two," Peter said.  
"Susan, Tom and I. We aren't coming back to Narnia."  
"You aren't?" Lucy said.  
"You four may, one day. But our time in Narnia is over." I said.  
Susan stood, head held high and proud. Her lips set in a firm line. She was silent. He sent us into the portal. We arrived on platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Edmund and Susan boarded one train. We boarded ours for Hogwarts. The train ride was spent in silence. 


	35. Chapter 35

We parted ways with Lucy. The four of us took a carriage up to the castle. She departed along with the rest of the first years. We trooped up to the castle and took our places in the Great Hall. The first years walked in single file. Algernon Longbottom joined us in Gryffindor. Lucretia Mott went to Slytherin. The hat was placed on Lucy's head, and soon the Hall lapsed into silence. We waited for nearly fifteen minutes before the Hat shouted Slytherin! And Lucy's robes were trimmed in green and silver. After the sorting, Headmaster Dippet stood.

"We have a change of staff for the year. Due to the escalating tensions in the war, and Grindelwald's forays into attempting to invade Britain, Assistant Headmaster Dumbledore has joined a ICW coalition. As such, he will temporarily be replaced as Assistant Headmaster by Professor Slughorn. Professor Babbling will take over the duties of Slytherin Head of House. We welcome the esteemed Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel as teachers this year for Transfiguration. Professor Perenelle will be teaching the younger years. Professor Nicolas will be instructing the Sixth and Seventh Years. As always, the Forbidden Forest remains as such. The first hogsmeade weekend will be held in two weeks. Your head of house will collect your permission slips tonight. Now, without further ado, the feast!" A wave of his wand, and the food appeared on the table.

We ate, and departed for our rooms. Peter and I gave our permission slips to Professor Merrythought.

The next morning, Algie and Lucy joined us at the Gryffindor table.

"How was your first night?" Peter asked Lucy. She had poured herself a cup of tea and grabbed some bacon and eggs.

"They gave me some difficulties. But I set them straight." She said with a smile that was all teeth. A chill went down my spine, and I felt momentary pity for the poor Slytherin who had tried to haze her. That pity was quickly replaced with satisfaction. I taught Lucy well it seemed.

Professor Merrythought made her way towards us. She handed Minerva and Reg their time tables. Then handed Lucy and Algernon theirs. "Tom, Peter. See me in my office today after breakfast." She told us and proceeded to hand out times tables to the rest of the house.

Peter and I shared a look with each other. After breakfast we went to Professor Merrythoughts office. Her office was contradictory. Despite the light colors the office was decorated in, there was a certain There was a tank in the far corner where a grindylow floated. Along the back wall there was a row of bookshelves. Along one wall, there were plants enclosed by glass. Curiously, there was a rack of hand to hand weapons along another. Nestled in a corner, there was a cabinet which had doors that were locked with chains. In the center of the room there was a large wooden desk. Behind the desk there was a plush, leather office chair. Professor Merrythought sat in the chair. She was going through papers. The desk had a foe-glass in corner. Aside from this there was a small stack of parchments on her desk, along with two cases. Two straight back wooden chairs set in front of it.

"Have a seat." She said, and we complied.

"I was going over your records. Both of your records. You two are at the top of your classes. There are a few classes that you need work on. Namely Astronomy and History of Magic. Mr. Riddle, you have shown great aptitude for runes. Mr. Pevensie, you are one of the most gifted Potion's students that I have seen this decade. We were going to originally fulfill your elective requests and bequeath each of you with time turners to facilitate your increased course load. However, Headmaster Dippet and I, along with Assistant Headmaster Dumbledore, have decided on another course of action. Your first week will be spent on the core subjects for your third year. If you are successfully in these exams, we will be moving you up to fourth year for these. Mr. Riddle. You will be taking an additional test in runes for fourth year. Since you are muggleborns, and they tend to test extraordinarily high in Muggle Studies, you will both be taking the third and fourth year end of year exams for that subject. Should you be successful, I will arrange an OWL for that class this year along with the fifth years, and you will sit the Muggle Studies NEWT with the seventh years next year. We will still be issuing you with Time Turners because of scheduling conflicts with third year electives and fourth year classes. However, if you agree to this, we expect you to be prepared to test out of the fourth year electives at the end of this year, and have a full fifth year schedule for the following school year. This includes your history of Magic Class"

"I agree." I said. I didn't even have to think about this.

"As do I."

"Good. We'll start with your Defense Against the Dark Arts exam. Are you ready now?"

"Sure." I said. She waved her wand, and the third year exam popped into being in front of us. We got down to it.

The next week was a blur of tests and revisions. Some of the questions were simple. Other bits were difficult not because of the lack of knowledge, but because it had been years from my perspective since I had last reviewed that part of the subject matter. The third year test for CoMC was a cakewalk. We had spent nearly two and a half decades learning about magical creatures. Even though we hadn't encountered some of the creatures in Narnia, there were principles, guesses, such as the diet of magical creatures that lived in water, that appeared to be universal. There wasn't a question of whether or not we'd pass the test. We also caught up with Arithmancy. It was comparable to regular mathematics, there were some differences in the some expressions were solved, but it was largely the same. Runes were trivial. After the week of exams, we were issued time turners. I spent my first version of Saturday training Reginald, Minerva, and Lucy. After four hours of training, I spun back to that morning. While Tom One was training those three, I went into my trunk library and spent time researching any and everything I could find on Niffins. My son was out there, and I would find a way to bring him back. Niffins were capable of interdimensional travel. I needed to find a way to summon him. Then there were enchantments that could be used on a box. I'd be imprisoning him temporarily, but there had to be a way to turn him back.

I read until I knew that Tom One and co were done with the Room of Requirement, grabbed a nap, and a few things from my trunk. I had "forgotten" to return Luci's Elixir, and needed that. I went to a stall in one of the boys bathrooms, and spun back yet again to just after I went asleep.

While Tom Two was in his trunk reading, I went to the room of requirement.

I stood outside the room, and paced back and forth thrice. I ordered the room to give me a double lab, partitioned into two halves.

I took the elixir out of an extended pouch, along with my notes. I spent another four hours analyzing the elixir, and got nowhere. I went into the second partition and spun back.

Tom Three began his analysis of the Elixir of Life. I began casting a bevy of revealing spells on the time turner. I'd have to return this at the end of my Hogwarts career, and it was two damn useful not have have permanent access to it. I spent four hours analyzing the various components of the time turner, packed up my various materials from both labs and exited the room. Then I went to the library and started my homework for the week. The library closed, and I headed back to my dorm, and crashed for ten hours. Sunday, I woke up late and went down breakfast. After grabbing a quick cup of tea I went down to the Chamber of Secrets. When I was going through my old papers from Narnia, I had found the letter I had left myself.

I opened the Chamber, and went down the steps. Now that I was on high alert, and had learned some measure of Occlumency, I felt a spell try to weave into my consciousness. Some sort of truth spell, combined with a compulsion to believe. I had been played the entire fucking time. Oh, he was dead. I had a few tools with me.

"Speak to me Salazar, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four!" I said. Salazar appeared in Basilisk form and shifted back into his human form.

"Long time no see Tom." He said.

"I know, it's been nearly a year. How have you been doing?"

"I've been well. I've taken to hunting german U-Boats. They're a good exercise. What brings you down here?" He asked. He seemed nervous.

"Just a few questions I had." I said with a smile. Then I sprang into action. Jadis' wand in one hand, chains wrapped around him. Then a prisoner's confinement snapped into place around him. All three defensive shields used in combat, reversed.

"Tom, what's the meaning of this?" He said.

"Salazar, you lied to me. I want to know what you lied about."

"Who gave you that information?" He said.

"That location of this information is moot. I want to know why you lied to me. I'll rip it out of your mind. I don't care." I drew my flintlock from my belt and pointed it his head.

"Tell me what you lied to me about. "

Then something happened faster than my eyes could track. He ended the incarcerous and broke my inverted shield spells. With a wave of his hand I was disarmed, and flying through the air. A wandless arresto momentum stopped me from being slammed into one of the stone walls of the chamber.

I drew my yew wand, and sent a lance of ignited phosphorus toward him. He starved the phosphorus of oxygen, and threw out a conjured spear towards me. I blocked that, and unleashed a wandless banisher that he blocked. A wave of water rose up and flew toward me. I froze it, and summoned my pistol, then I took aim and fired. He blocked the projectile.

"Oh, you've picked up some tricks." He said, and made a slashing gesture with his hand. I countered it and unleashed a reducto that he stopped with a shield.

"Enflammateur!" I yelled, conjuring a ball of flame the size of my head and throwing it at Salazar. He summoned more water to block the fire and I fired with my flintlock again. He blocked this as well. A snake formed in the water and flew towards me. I spun out of the way, and apparated just behind Salazar with a loud crack.  
"Fulmin Somnus!" I shouted, An arc of electricity shot from my hands and struck him, crackling across his skin in jolts of blue lighting. I had invented the spell as a way to non lethally take down prisoners. It was my answer to a tazer. He dropped to the ground with a thud. I needed a way to question him. I bound him again, put him in a trunk, and hauled his ass to the room of requirement.

I placed him in a chair and bound him again with chains, then I carefully sketched a circle around him. It snapped into place and hummed with power. I sketched the arithmetic equations for the inverted spells around the circle and sealed the circle with a couple drops of my blood. It would seal the spell against him breaking it, only someone with my blood could do so. Then I murmured the counterspell to the taser and he woke up.

"Where am I?" He asked. He broke the chains, and immediately knelt on the ground to examine my spellwork.

"In a secure room, you have some questions I would like the answer to. What are you lying about." I said in a measured tone.

"I take it you've removed me from the Chamber then?" He asked.

"Yes." I said, and he smiled. Alarm bells began ringing in my head.

"Oh, very good Tom. Very good indeed. Also, the blood lock was a nice touch. I'll give you that. I want to thank you for solving a problem for me I've been facing for quite some time. You see, I could leave the chamber as a basilisk, but my incorporate bond prevented me from leaving the chamber willingly. You've just solved a problem that has been eluding me for centuries. Thank you for that." He said, and threw his will against my spells. I felt the magic crackle, meet and stop.

"The ward is blood sealed, the only one who can break it is me." I said with a smirk.

"Funny thing about blood. Did you know those who share blood can break it?"  
"Good thing for me my mother is dead and my other family members are far away."

"But are they?" He said. He bit himself, hard and drew blood. Then he spat the blood into his palm.

"Cruor relashio!" He yelled. The spells I bound around him shattered. He gestured and I felt a wave of force slam into me. He walked over. Then he disarmed and bound me. He took Jadis' wand.

"I thank you for the wand, it's got quite a bit of power to it. This will come in handy." He said.

"You can't apparate in Hogwarts." I said.

"Oh, headmasters can, and once a Headmaster of Hogwarts, always a Headmaster of Hogwarts." He said with a cruel smile. He popped away, and I fumed against my bindings. 


	36. Chapter 36

It took me nearly an hour to unravel the spells I had been bound with. Salazar was good, and I kicked myself for allowing him to get loose. Ugh. That fucking bastard. I couldn't do anything to stop him from escaping. He was loose. Time Turners didn't allow me to travel back in time to fix something. They were good for increased productivity, but a Delorean they were not.

Sighing, I exited the room. Then I spun back time ten hours. Tom One would still be asleep. I entered the room after pacing back and forth, envisioning just what I wanted. My current project, the Elixir, the Time Turner, and etc, were on the back burner. Now, I needed something else. The opened opened. There was a blackboard in front of me, along with a table. I grabbed a sketchbook out of my bag and instructed one of my pens to begin mirroring the blackboard I'd asked the room for. I began sketching ideas down. There were a couple of ideas from long ago read fanfiction that I recalled. It was time to put some of my plans that I had long ago shelved back into action. My first would be to recreate the flight spell that my future self would one day employ.

I waved my wand and the chalk wrote the arithmetic equation for the levitation spell. Then I begin listing the spells that were on brooms. I didn't plan on transforming myself into smoke. That required spells that changed your matter, and that was transfiguration that was still beyond me. However, if I could reverse engineer the flight spells on brooms and place them on bracelets, it would give me a workable flight spell. Hopefully. I really wanted to figure out how to make carbon fiber, but I was fairly certain that particular fanfic used a computer with a 3D modeling program, something that was at least half a century out of my reach. I shook my head. Engraving would be easy enough with metal. It would be time consuming, but I had time. It's a shame I didn't have my own Philosopher's stone. I going to be living an extra day at a time. By the time I was out of Hogwarts, I'd have aged eight years instead of four. But, with Salazar on the loose, I didn't have time to reverse engineer the stone. I'd spent nearly fifteen years in Narnia trying to reverse engineer it, and I was just not beginning to figure out the basic steps in construction. If only I had the source instead of just the Elixir. Suddenly, I had an idea. I didn't have access to a Philosopher's stone, but someone else in the castle did. The question would be, how would I break into that office. I'd done it with the Potion's store room enough times. Surely it couldn't be that hard. Actually, it would be just the office I had to break into. I'd need to get into their quarters. If they were living in the castle instead of apparting or portaling home every day. I could spend weeks scoping out their schedules, figuring out what time they were both absent from their quarters, but why would I need to do that? I had nothing but time on my side. I grinned, jotted down the ideas I had in my journal, and went back to creating my flight spells. I had other ideas too, things that I'd never had a chance to try out in Narnia. But, I'd need to adapt some spells. I had refined my flintlocks, but now I was back in the normal world. If I could adapt my spells enchanting the flintlocks to normal pistols or revolvers. If I could adapt a couple of ideas I had for grenades and heavier weapon. Landmines enchanted to spew out gemino'd shrapnel or phosphorus, or other things. A machine gun enchanted with feather-light charms with a never ending belt and cooling charms.

The bottomless gold would also help. Hmm. I went back to my other plans. I'd need access to war material. There was no way I'd steal from the allies. That would be releasing butterflies. Right now, I'd fucked around a bit, the whole thing with Black and Malfoy, for example, but something like that could change the outcome of the war. I knew from my studies of history earlier in life that there were a few outposts the germans had abandoned, but these wouldn't be built for a year or so. If they were even built. Wait. That gave me another idea.

I spun back eight more hours, and left the room of requirement after grabbing a map of europe and sneaking up to my room and grabbing a spare empty trunk along with my broom. I popped away to London, and designed the port key that would take me to my destination. To design a blind portkey, to needed the latitude and longitude of the location you needed. I grabbed that from the map and then I created the spell, creating a two way portkey out of a marble. I landed outside a forest by Brest Litovsk. I covered myself in a bevy of concealment spells. Disillusionment, scent blocking, sound blocking, notice me-nots, muggle repelling, and wizard repelling spells. I covered my broom in the same ones. Suddenly there was a crack near me. I heard shouting in german. Fuck, storm wizards. I took to the air, and went to search for my query.

I hovered for awhile, using a spell on my eyes to give myself binocular like vision. I found a munitions building, and landed on the roof. I fell to to ground with a an arresto momentum. I Entered the depot, stunned the two guards on duty, and found that christmas had come early. I grabbed a vial of polyjuice off a pouch on my belt and paired it with a hair from one of the guards. Downing it. After changing into the guard, I dropped the trunk, and opened it. I grabbed three MG42s, four MP 40s, two Lugers, and bunch of ammo for each. About half a dozen S-Mines. Oh, and a granatwerfer 34. I closed and shrunk the trunk. Then I activated my portkey, only for nothing to happen. Of course they'd have anti-travel spells up. I sighed, exited the building and found three storm wizards waiting for me. They yelled at me in German, I saw one wave his wand and felt my spells strip away.

Another threw a killing curse at me. I jumped back in the building, narrowly dodging the flash of green. I reapplied my spells, then I unleashed a nebulus spell that would turn the surrounding area into fog. The fog spread, and soon the room was covered in a thick bank of of it. Two of the storm wizards entered the building. My fog was neutralized, and one got my arm with a cutter. Then I blew a hole in the roof, summoned my broom, and kicked off and up.

Two storm wizards were waiting in the skies. I blew one apart with a lucky shot with a bombarda. The other traced the trajectory of my spell and unleashed a killing curse toward me. I barrel rolled out of the way, hugging the broom tightly and dove down. I heard the alarm bells, and wished I taken the time to enchant a few of the bullets for my new guns.

I made a gripping motion with my hand, and the air around the storm wizard hardened. They broke the crushing spell, and I shot upward, and threw a killing curse down on their heads. They must of heard the rushing wind from the spell or sensed the spell coming, and they dodged. I threw out a spear of conjured phosphorus, and it actually hit. The storm wizard caught alight, and I heard his dying screams. I shot away, until I was beyond the range of their wards. Then I activated my portkey. I healed my arm and apparated back to Hogwart's ward line. I went up to my room, deposited the trunk filled with Nazi weapons, grabbed my homework from third year arithmancy and divination and went down to the common room. Peter joined me after awhile. We worked in silence for awhile. Finally he closed his books and raised a set of privacy spells.

"Tom, I miss you." He said. I looked at him.

"I'm right here, why would you miss me?" I said.

"You know what I mean." He said.

"I do." I replied.

"I miss you too. But, it was your idea for us to break up. Not mine." I told him. He nodded sadly.

"Peter, I don't care what anyone thinks. Society, the world, this school, could burn around us and I wouldn't bat an eye. You, your brothers and sisters. Reg and Min, that is my family. If you ever decide that the expectations of society and their draconian mores are not how you want to rule your life, I will be waiting. Until then, I won't be in a relationship with you. Wizarding kind is far more tolerant than the muggles."

He nodded. I took out a piece of parchment and started penning a letter to Susan. She would want to know her brother was finally getting his head out of his ass. I knew she had feelings for me, we had spent so much time together planning in Narnia, and we had addressed that long ago. Susan was many things, a sister, a friend, my closest confidante. Someone I would gladly take a killing curse or an arrow to the heart for with no problems and absolutely no regrets. A lover, no. It would be awkward and just wrong on multiple levels. If Peter decided not to pursue our relationship, there were plenty of fish in the sea. Susan was not one of them. I penned the letter, encoded with a special cypher that I, and the Pevensies could decode with just a look. It had served us well for years. I sent this via my long neglected owl. Then I returned to the common room and enjoyed a quiet day recovering from my nocturnal escapades.


	37. Chapter 37

First of Three Updates today Monday morning came. I attended third year arithmancy, then spun back to join the fourth year care of magical creatures class. This was followed by third year divination, which was forty-five minutes of drinking nasty herbal tea and examining its leaves while attempting to not suffocate from the incense the teacher burned that left me with a foggy feeling in my head, and a throbbing migraine after. I spun back forty five minutes, and went to my trunk to grab two headache cures. After that, while Tom One and Tom Two were in class and recovering, I went to the Room of Requirement to spend four hours, partitioned into forty five minute segments beginning the preliminary enchantments for my magical machine gun. After that, Tom Seven resumed classes. Fourth Year Charms was interesting, but not nearly as challenging as I'd hoped. Muggle studies was a non-issue class. I penciled that in as a study period. After Muggle Studies, Peter and I went back in time to 1:45 PM and up to our dorms to collect our books for third year history of magic. Our first Astronomy practical was that night. At 6:30 PM, I spun back to 8:30 AM. I was at my eighth timeline for that day. While my previous incarnations were living out the day, I dressed in my finest robes, and apparated from the Hogwarts ward line to Gringotts apparition point. I met with my banker, deposited all the gold I had gained in Narnia, and found an apartment on top of a building in magical London. along with this, I purchased a warehouse that would be the main office and storage area for Magitype Communications. I took two of the offices that were in the upper room of the warehouse. The first was my office for clerical work, the second was an enchanting lab. Then I went to the apartment I had purchased. It was more of a penthouse honestly. Six beds, and four bathrooms. An office, a dining room, a second study, along with a kitchen. I warded that apartment to high hell. Unplottable, fidelius, keyed apparition, portal, and portkey. The only safe way into the apartment was a mirror who's twin I had in one of my trunks. One of my machine guns would be animated, automated, and set to guard the entryway, which was coincidentally the only way to apparate in. Anyone who managed that feat would be reduced to red paste. A dozen different booby traps were placed in the apartment. A rooftop garden would have all manner of deadly plants.

The office I turned into my library where I put my safe books and artifacts. The second was to put it bluntly, a weapons depot. In this room, which I warded with a secondary runic network, I placed every dark artifact, instrument and tome I had pilfered from Jadis. I also installed a weapons rack that held the rest of my armor and armaments. I didn't like the idea of having all this at Hogwarts. I set an alarm to sleep after being up for over twenty hours. I woke up, freshened myself, and then apparated back to Hogwarts. The rest of my days soon followed that pattern. Apparition too and from Hogwarts, ludicrous amounts of Time Travel, and research.

In a month, I did three months worth of work. I had created a very fine-tuned schedule. The weekends I devoted to teaching Reginald and Minerva. Lucy was experiencing difficulties in Slytherin, and since Malfoy and Black had been sequestered in their respective mansions while recovering from my mind rape, I had no one inside the dorms besides her. I was confident that she could deal with anything. While assuring the purebloods of her own superiority, she was growing a following in her muggleborn and half-blood year mates. She was quickly becoming a leader in that year's social circle. I didn't know what her long term goals were, but I trusted her to keep track of her own goals, and clean up her own mistakes. Hopefully with a minimum of bloodshed. September turned to October. The days got colder, and Halloween approached.

Halloween was a day off for the castle. I spent the day talking with Lucy. She had sufficiently cowed the first year purebloods and was beginning to work on the upper years. After one of her pureblood classmates suffered a week of night terrors, and then vanished for the weekend, only to reappear a changed person, Slytherin began giving her a wide berth and a healthy amount of respect. I had began exercising in the mornings to gain back my old physique. This, coupled with the onset of puberty for the second time, and swordplay practice, and I was getting some tone back.

I needed that today. I waited until the Halloween feast, Perenelle and Nicolas Flamel were attending. I waited until the end of the Feast, and then ducked into the boy's bathroom and spun back until two hours before, and grabbed my kit. I exited the bathroom, Peter and Lucy were waiting for me. They had used Peter's time turner and were on lookout. They took their places. I waited until the Flamels departed for the feast. Then I picked their wards, and broke into their quarters. There was nothing in there aside from a mirror. This mirror was a set portal. I decided to go through. Then I stopped. I knew that time turners wouldn't allow you to change what had already happened, but I didn't know what was waiting for, or going to happen to me when I went in the mirror. I immediately resolved to dissolution myself, and drop a note for myself whether or not my ploy would work, along with why.

A piece of folded parchment appeared, and I opened it. All was good.

I cast my concealment spells, and entered the portal. There weren't a lot of active defenses on the apartment. I browsed around the place and resisted the urge not to throw the entire apartment into a trunk and take everything. There were books and artifacts that I could only dream of obtaining in the flat. Tomes that hummed with magic. Artifacts brimming with power.

I quickly found the stone, pocketed and left the flat. I disillusioned myself, spun back half an hour, dropped a note to my past self, and left hogwarts. This is when it could get tricky. Time turners could turn back at max twenty four hours. But, they could be chained. I spun back a month, and a half, just after I bought the penthouse.

I went into the first bedroom, and began my analysis. I spent a week in that room, following a carefully constructed schedule for bathrooms and eating and exercise. I did that multiple times, spending almost two months in a time loop. I gained a couple inches in height. Then, October 31st, I waited in Hogwarts for original Tom to leave and then I entered the castle, snuck back to the flat and replaced the Philosopher's stone. I would have stolen it, and left to two ancient Flamel's to die, but I liked Perenelle's take on Transfiguration.

I had learned a lot about the Stone in the few months I had it, and I was fairly close to making one for myself. The fact I had a few hundred pounds of gold would help my finances along. I glamoured myself to hide my aging, and went to bed.

The weekend after Halloween, we had our first Hogsmeade weekend. We went as a group, mostly. Rigel however, took one Augusta Rosier. She was a Slytherin, and I knew they studied together. Both were lacking when it came to the Charms Department. Those two went off to Madam Puddifoot's, and we explored the village. The shrieking shack had yet to be built, and the whomping willow wouldn't be planted for at least twenty years. But Zonko's was open for business, as was Honeydukes. Somehow, the war had passed the shop by. I stocked up on candy, and grabbed a few things for the Pevensies. Peter was also buying for his siblings. And ourselves. I grabbed a few truffles that looked particularly yummy. After Honeydukes we went to Scrivenshaft's, and Zonko's. I wished the Weasley's had started their shopping during this time period instead of forty years down the road. The things I could do with a decoy detonator. We completed our circuit of Hogsmeade. The village had two separate sections. The first was the area for the school. The stores that Hogsmeade had that catered to the students. The second was the village proper. An Owl Mail Office, A small branch of Gringotts where limited transactions could be performed. A market. About a hundred houses. Hogsmeade was a farming village, and it's main export, aside from students, was wheat, barley, beef and potatoes.

We grew bored of Hogsmeade, grabbed lunch and butterbear at the Three Broomsticks, and then returned to the castle.

The days flew by. The cool autumn turned to a vicious winter in mid-november. Peter, Lucy and I made plans to go to Finchley for the Christmas Holidays.

It was the last Transfiguration class for the Winter term. We had been dismissed.

"Mr. Riddle, I have a question about your homework. Could you stay behind?" Perenelle Flamel said. This was not unusual. My teachers frequently kept Peter and I over, to ensure that we weren't falling behind. I nodded, and the rest of the class left.

With a snap of her hand, I heard the door to the classroom lock. I felt wards flare to life. In an instant, with a gesture to fast for me to track, I was bound with magic, and disarmed. Nicolas Flamel's disillusionment charm broke. They walked toward me. Glamours dropped, and instead of the frail looking senior citizens there was two healthy looking people in their late twenties standing before me.

"Mr. Riddle, would you care to tell me why you stole my Stone?" He asked. 


	38. Chapter 38

"I don't know what you're talking about." I stammered.

"Oh, don't play stupid, boy." Perenelle said. I gave her a look.

"What are you talking about?" I said.

"You and your friend, Pevensie. You both act far to old for children. From what I gather, you've always acted like that. You barely pay attention in classes, yet you easily get the highest marks in this grade. Your writing is also far to advanced for children. Your grasp of the material is highly advanced. Are you time travelers?" She said, her eyes narrowing.

"It's just fourth year material." I replied.

"It is not. I've been giving you steadily advanced work in your classes for a month." Perenelle said. Most of the teachers would give Peter and I our work seperately, to ensure we were keeping up with our classes.

Your glamours also need work." She said, and I felt them being stripped away.

"Your lack of attention is glaring. Since you also don't read the material. I knew something was odd. I can see through the glamours you place on your text. Instead of fourth year books, you've been reading advanced transmutation texts, and one of Amelia's damnable wandless guides."

"How did you see through my glamour?" I said.

"Any sufficiently knowledagble mage knows how to do it. I've enchanted a pair of reading glasses to do it. In our world, seeing through a glamour could mean the difference between life and death." She said. She always wore a pair of those glasses. I was covertly using a wandless chain breaker spell. Just a little bit longer and I'd be able to break through and obliviate these two.

"Honestly child, if you insist upon trying to break free, at least be subtle with your magic." Nicolas said. He made a gesture. Suddenly my hands balled into fists of their own accord and froze in place.

I sighed, wishing I could cross my arms.

"How did you find out?"

"Your magical signature was all over our quarters, and in our flat. It was concentrated around the stone. Curiously enough, there were two signatures there. Both of them belonged to you. Either you have gotten ahold of magical clay, which I doubt, or your stole our Stone and then returned it after taking it for a time turner. The fact that you even knew about magical mirrors, something that isn't covered until seventh year. We know you were an orphan until your father adopted you, so I'm assuming that it was because you wanted money. You picked the wrong wizard to rob, boy. But, before we turn you over to Dippet, or the Unspeakables, I want to know how you gained that knowledge." Nicolas said.

"I've got a bit of seer's blood?" I said.

"Pull the other one, it has bells on it." He replied.

Perenelle's eyes narrowed.

"You aren't one of Jane's are you? I swear, I'm going to kill that little chit." She fumed.

"Who's Jane?" I asked.

"No one important." She replied.

"I stand for myself, and the Pevensies. Could you please let me go?" I was absolutely powerless. I was trying to undo the spell that Nicolas Flamel had placed on my hands, but it was hard to do so.

"Not until you answer our questions, child." Perenelle replied.

Anger soared through me.

"I"m going to burn you alive." I said, unable to keep a hold on my anger.

"Oh, the little lion cub has teeth." She murmured.

"Fuck you." I spat, and suddenly I couldn't feel my lips, or my mouth.

"You think we need you to talk in order to find out your motives?" She said, and forced me to lock eyes with her. I felt her brush against my occulemency barriers and pause. I smiled in victory, then will slammed into mine. My fifty some odd years of knowledge and magic was nothing against the sledgehammer of six centuries of power and magic that Perenelle Flamel could bring to bare. My occulmency barriers were torn to shreds, and she was suddenly in my mind. Ruffling through memories of my desperate flight from Jadis and Salazar's escape. Peter and I in the gardens at Cair Paravel, nights spent there with nothing but the summer air between us. Days of study in our castle. Edward's birth. The destruction of Narrow Haven. Experiments in sorcery. Delving into magic so dark, the Magician's Court and the DMLE would have me Kissed for even contemplating using it. I fought to throw her out of my mind. I relieved the fight against the dragon. The Pevensie's coronation. Our victory against Jadis. I relieved it all. Every tear stained memory, and joyful moment. Everything I had been trying to push back into my mind since leaving Narnia, came roaring back to the forefront. I heard someone desperately sobbing, and realized it was me. I felt myself fall to my knees. She had gotten as far as that first train ride to Hogwarts, when I managed to push her out my head.

"Well, where's the little brat from? Who sent him?"

"Dear, remember when we went dimension hopping a few years ago, we stumbled on that winter world?"

"The one ruled by that dreadful creature, the one with a fascination with woodland statuary?"

"Yes, that one. Well, he, the Pevensies, they defeated her." Perenelle said.

"Well, that's marvelous news!" He said.

"So, that's why he's so knowledable. This means we can't obliviate him of his knowledge of the stone." He said, there was a wistful tone to his voice. I double my efforts to break the spells holding me.  
"Unfortunately. I do have some bad news. It appears Salazar Slytherin is still alive and well." Perenelle said.

"Oh, that's unfortunate. I had so hoped we'd killed him when we destroyed that horcrux of his." Nicolas replied, and Perenelle nodded in sympathy. Then Nicolas looked at me.

"What are we going to do about him?" He said.

"Well, I'll deal with him. I'm glad we only have morning classes today. This would be a horrible situation if we had to deal with classes on top of damage control." Perenelle said.

"You're right, as always. I'll go pack, you deal with the child." Nicolas said, giving his wife a peck on the cheek. She nodded and smiled. I'd gotten my hands free, and was frantically working on picking apart the spells binding me.

She gave me a look, and tsked softly.

"Now, that won't do." She said, then she drew her wand and pointed it at my head. All I knew was black.


	39. Chapter 39

When I woke up my head was throbbing. What had I gotten into last night? To much faun wine again. I groaned, and looked around. Where was I? The room was sterile, and white. There were five beds across the room, all of them made in crisp linen sheets. I groaned, and realized I was in Hogwart's infirmary. Why was I thinking about faun wine? I'd thought my attempts to lock away my memories of Narnia were successful, apparently not. What the hell had happened? The Matron of the school, Calliope Montgomery, chose that moment to enter the ward from her office.

"Ah, Mr. Riddle. I'm glad you could join us. Do try to be more careful next time, won't you?"

"What happened?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"I remember transfiguration class, and Professor Flamel holding me back to discuss homework, but after that.." I said. I wasn't sure, there was a blank spot in my memory. I frowned. Something wasn't right. I tried calling up my occlumency barriers and found tatters. A fall shouldn't have done that. It wouldn't have.

"You fell through the staircase, there's a trick step. You must have hit them. Were it not for a bit of accidental magic, and Professor Flamel giving us a bit of his elixir, you would have died Mr. Riddle." The matron said. I struggled to sit up.

"What day is it?"

"December 26th. Mr. Pevensie has been beside himself with worry."

"He didn't go home?"

"No, him and his sister are currently in the castle. They've only left your bedside to eat."

"When can I leave?"

"Mr. Riddle. You suffered broken bones in both in all four of your limbs, shattered three vertebrae, and fractured your skull. You're quite lucky to be alive. Give it a day or two after getting out of your coma."

"The elixir should have healed me." I said.

Peter and Lucy walked in the door.

"Were it not for that elixer, you would be dead. It healed your internal injuries, and started your bones to mend. As it was, even a couple drops of it was enough to do that. The Elixir of Life is precious, and you're lucky Professor Flamel even spared that. Now, Mr. Riddle. I'm going to the kitchens to get us dinner. Try to stay put, won't you?" the Matron said, and left the room. Peter instantly raised a privacy ward around my bed, sheathing the three of us from prying ears. It would also make the Matron stay away from my bed when she came back from grabbing us dinner.

"Peter, add an anti-scry variant to that." I said. He gave me a curious look.

"Gregory's or Martin's?" He asked.

"Both." I said. The tip of his wand lit, he carved three glyphs in the air that glowed blue. The air took on a shimmer, and the privacy ward incorporated the spells into it's being.

"Lucy, your Elixir. I need it." I told her. She nodded, and produced the elixir from a fold inside her robes. I took a healthy swig from the bottle. A warm feeling coursed through my body. I felt something in my back pop and sighed as the throbbing in my skull faded and then vanished entirely.

"What happened Tom?" Peter asked.

"I don't know. My occlumency is shot to hell. Whatever happened, it certainly wasn't a fall. I'm pretty sure I've been obliviated."

"Do you want me to check?" Lucy asked. Fortunately, our skills in that area had come back with us. I was still adapting our wandless magic to Earth's various circumstances, and it was slow going. I'd regained some of my telekinetic skill, but it was a far cry from the repertoire I could call upon when I was in Narnia.

I nodded, and locked eyes with her. I felt her brush past the remnants of my mental barricades, and then lost track. After a moment, I lost track of her. I trusted her. Her eyes glazed over. Then she gasped.

"Bloody buggering fuck!" She said.

"What?"

"I found the memory. It's been erased. When I tried to restore it. Something threw me out. It took every bit of legilimency I had to defend myself. Whoever attacked you was good. Maybe Susan and I could combine our abilities and break the spell. If I had my wandless skills back, I could try it myself. But, as it is right now, if I brute forced the spell, the defense placed around it would melt your glial membrane or something equally catastrophic. Whoever did this is subtle, and powerful. I almost didn't realize that there was a trap until it was triggered.

"Can this spell be ended with the death of the caster?"

"I don't know. Mental magic isn't my forte. You and Susan were always the ones good at that."

"How is Susan?"

"She's miffed that we missed Christmas, but told us to try and keep an eye on you. Edmund expresses the same sentiments."

"I really wish we could get them in to the castle." I murmured.

"I do to, but I haven't had the time to get a working mirror portal network up. It's on the to-do list." Peter replied. He had been responsible for working out the kinks in the mirror network, and had figured out the rune cluster to communicate and send items between more than two mirrors.

"Because you have so much going on." I snarked.

"I don't see you doing much." I retorted.

"Boys, enough. It's irrelevant anyways, until Magitype gets off the ground, and our safe houses are up, there's no point in having that many mirrors. We all have our pocket mirrors, and those should be good." Lucy cut in.

"Oh!" I said.

"What?"

"Did I have my mirror on me, when I was found?"  
"Yes." Peter said. I smiled.  
"Tom, what are you plotting?"

"When I created the Mirrors, I added in a failsafe. A way to spy on someone from their mirror, without them to know. This was added in case one of us was captured. I didn't use my mirror at all that day.

"My time turner is intact, correct?"

"Yes." Peter said.

"Where's my stuff. My kit, and wand."

"In one of my trunks."

"I need it. I'm going to spin back a few days."

"Wait, you need us." Lucy said.

"Someone attacked me. I'm going to find out who, and then I'm going to end them." I said darkly. I already had plans for them. I'd boil their marrow, or put a few of Jadis' more esoteric darker magics to work.  
"They attack one of us, they've attacked us all." Lucy said. Peter nodded darkly.

"Fine." I said.

"How are we going to handle this."

"We spin back. Activate your mirror from Peter's, and then figure out who attacked you. Then, kill them." Lucy said harshly.

"Details, my dear." I said.

"You're creative. I'm sure you'll figure something out." She bit back.

"This isn't going to work. You know that, right?" Lucy said.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"The Matron is going to wonder where you went. What are we supposed to tell her?"

"Oh." I said.

"Honestly, Tom. You're impossible." She said.

"Fine, mum, what do you suggest we do?" I said.

"Wait for her to dismiss you. You two have Time Turners. You have all the time in the world. Wait until you have a clean bill of health. Then we go get the bastards." She said. It made sense. I nodded. With a twist of his wand, Peter dispelled the privacy spells, and we turned to our plans for Summer. I frowned, and a thought crossed my mind. The anger and fire at my predicament suddenly began evaporating like dew on a hot summer day.

"Why?" I said

"Why what?" Lucy asked.

"Why go through all the trouble for this, obviously someone nearly killed me. That speaks of power and magical abilities above my own. I've got a bad feeling about this. I'm going to live and let live. This once. Narnia taught me that perhaps, revenge shouldn't be my first thought. I think that we should let this whole thing go. I say once, let's live at let live." I said. Peter and Lucy gave me strange looks, but they quickly agreed.

"Yeah, let's let this one go." Peter said, and Lucy nodded.

They were still in the planning stages, but Peter's father was coming home and then to New York City. He was still in the military, but he was bound for New York City along with Helen Pevensie and Susan. Peter was going to Professor Kirke's new house in Cambridge for the Summer. Someone had bought his old house for cash, and then the country manor had promptly burned down. And been placed under a fidelius, and as many fucking wards as I knew. It's amazing what you can do with the imperio, and a vial of the draught of living death for the secret keeper. You might say I'd gotten the manor for a steal. Edmund and Lucy were off to the Scrubbs, their cousins.

My plans were launching Magitype, and research. I was close to reverse engineering the stone, I had some setbacks, and really wanted a live specimen. It sucked that I wasn't able to snag the Flamel's over halloween, but I'd figure it out.

"What have Reg and Min been up to?"

"Reg mirror called me." Peter said.

"They got sent back to Fillory, Algie went with them. This time some leopard lost his spots and they helped Jane find them. I guess her brother, Martin, went missing in Fillory. Her other brother is in the army."  
"Are any of them magical?" I queried. Peter nodded.

"Yeah, Rupert and Jane both have magic. Martin did to before he vanished." He replied.

"I'm assuming it's wandless?" I said. He nodded in the affirmative.

"I hope we get a chance to meet them."

"Oh, I agree." Lucy said.

The matron chose to enter the Infirmary. A tray floated behind her. The tray unfolded itself and rested at my waist. There was a bowl of steaming soup and a roll, along with a glass of juice.

"Alright you two, time to leave. Mr. Riddle needs to eat." She said in a no-nonsense voice.

Peter and Lucy departed, and I ate.


	40. Chapter 40

**AN: These last updates will be the entirety and end of the fic.**

I was released from the infirmary the next afternoon. I went up to the common room. A few presents were waiting for me. From Reg I got a book about South American herbology. Minerva gave me the third volume of the animagus series we were working our way through. With any luck, we'd be able to figure out the transformation by next winter. It had turned into our own project. I received various books from the Pevensies, including one on modern chemistry from Edmund. The last gift had no tag, and was a book regarding ethics. I put that aside. After opening my gifts, I went to the Chamber of Secrets, and pilfered Salazar's library. I went to my London house and put the books in the armory depot. Then I checked my various projects. Something felt off. I checked my wards. Something was off with a couple of the equations. They had been simplified, an equation blocking scrying was almost elegant. It used a rune instead of an arithmetic equation for a gaze diversion. A rune I didn't recognize. I checked my projects. Each of them were locked in a trunk specific to the project I was working on. My study was an orderly series of trunks along with a desk and chair. I checked each of those. The one regarding the Philosopher's Stone was also changed, the locking spell had been completely erased, except, the spell that I had used to ensure any intruders who disarmed it were so much paste, was utterly untouched. I scanned for magical signatures. My signature was all over the wards, along with one similar to mine I didn't recognize. I deactivated the remaining security spells and entered the Trunk. My work was intact. Then I checked my arithmancy blackboard, the one that I was using for the incantations that would be used over the brew that the ruby core would be soaked in. It was fine, but there were a couple of symbols that had been changed. I read over my work. It looked as though months of work had been done. Where had this work come from?

I checked the journal I kept for this project, and found months of work. Judging from the dates, and the work I had completed, I had abused my time turner heavily during October. I came to the end of the journal, this entry was dated for two months into a time turner binge.

I recognized the handwriting. It was a note from myself. Myself from the Future.

_Dear Past Me._

_You have angered those better left alone. Don't continue down this path, and be mindful of the toes you step on. There are that even I fear. Beings of power that keep to their own devices. Please, heed my warnings. I understand that you would wish to strike back at these forces. But, your need for revenge must be tempered, less the atrocities we committed in Narnia pale in comparison to what we might bring to bare here. Leave this matter alone._

_Sincerely_

_Your Future Self._

Once again, I had a coded message. This one, judging from the subject matter I been researching was self explanatory. Fucking hell, my future self wasn't the best at codes. These hidden messages were annoying. Especially since these weren't in the cyper that the Pevensies and I used in our normal communications. Future me really needed to remember the cryptography lessons I'd taken to heart. I encrypted my journals better than this, and I was currently working on another way that would render my writing invisible. The spell was still in the developmental stages. But, I took the warning to heart. I'd all but disregarded my future self missives once before, and that had been bad. I was determined to take this warning to heart. It was obvious that the Flamel's could have easily destroyed my research. Why hadn't they? I had a feeling that I had just walked into something, that despite my accomplishments thus far, was far beyond my league. I immediately decided to take a step back from the situation. That being said. I had another plan. Everything. Salazar, the Flamels. I need more power, more weapons. I had those bodies from Miraz's castle. I had weapons stolen from the Nazis, but I had a feeling a few inferi or a enchanted machine gun wouldn't be that much of a challenge. The Flamels would pay, eventually. But for now, I'd keep my head down. I had toyed with the idea of magical armor in Narnia. Steel engraved with runes that would protect against most magical and physical attacks. Now, I was going to look into duplicating that. I could use Fergus' spectral armory as a basis. Tie that to an amulet or bracelet, and that could be an excellent basis. Ideally, I'd want a set of physical armor to block physical projectiles too, but that would be hard to conjure instantly. It would involve massive amounts of transmutation and conjuration. I could easily create secondary spells to stop fire and metal from touching me. This would stop most muggle firearms and explosives. I needed to adapt the circumstances for earth, quickly. I also needed to regain my muscleture in my hands and fingers. I also wanted something else. A plan formed in my head. I'd need a couple things. Namely a way to keep a glamour on an a large object. Perhaps, a gem or an amulet embedded in the object.

I waved my wand. The equations on the blackboard copied themselves to a nearby sketchpad, and I waved my wand a second time. The chalk vanished, and it place were designs drawn from my mind for what I was going to be my magical armor. Along with the spells Spells are interesting creations. The finger movements and wandless gestures are generally derived from the wand movements that spells are adapted from. Those in turn, are based on the shape of the runes, geometry, and intention, of a intended spell. Protego, for instance, is a circular movement based on the protective circles of old. Reverse engineering a spell was hard. For a simple spell, the arithmetic equations could be a couple pages. For Fergus' spectral, the arithmetic equations comprised nearly a hundred pages. This was tricky, because an enchanted object, unless you threw a godly amount of power into it, needed the equations for the spell you sought to imbue engraved unto it. I'd need to parse Fergus' down to smaller equation. Perhaps a set of runes or formulae that would set into a bracer. Luckily, the null-flame and metal ones would be easier to use. From there I could glamour them, or allow people to think they were a wand holster. I placed my work in stasis.

I groaned inwardly. I'd have to return to Little Hangleton for the summer. Before I did though, I'd to set my current objective into motion. I exited through the mirror, spun back a few hours to when I left the castle. Then I left the grounds and ventured into magical london. Under disguise, I purchased a horned toad. I apparated to hogsmeade, threw up my cloaking spells, and grabbed a silenced hen. Then I went back to the chamber. I conjured a pen for my chicken, and an aquarium for my toad. I went back upstairs and spent the balance of my day doing my homework. I went down to the girls bathroom, and heard sobbing in one of the stalls. An owlish, gangly girl came out. It was Myrtle Warren. A Ravenclaw prefect a year above me.

"What are you doing here?!" She shrieked.

"Get out of here Riddle!" She practically shrieked.

"Warren, I don't have time for your hysterics, how about you leave." I said. I didn't have time for her stupidity.

"This is the girls bathroom! I'm going to get a teach-" She was cut off, by my confundus charm.

"I heard you cry and consoled you, you're headed to Ravenclaw Tower." I said. She nodded unsteadily and left.

I went down to the chamber. My chicken had laid an egg over night. I compelled the toad to sit atop it, and left the Chamber.

Soon, our break was over. Winter melted into spring, and that bloomed into a cool summer. Peter and I took our exams, and we successfully tested into fifth year. My basilisk egg developed nicely, and was placed in a trunk under a stasis spell. My other research continued apace, and I experienced a breakthrough in mid march in regards to a working flight artifact. Soon, we departed the castle for the summer holidays, and I resigned myself to a summer in Little Hangleton.


	41. Chapter 41

Little Hangleton was dreadfully boring. It was mid-summer, and an uncharacteristic heat wave rolled through the town. My family apparently owned most of the town, and their main source of revenue was the income from their holdings in the town. They owned the houses, percentages of the revenue generated from the general store, and the other small stores in the town. It was a quaint village, and I yearned for the hustle and bustle of London. Being stuck in this town was bringing back memories of summer from my old life, and memories of whiling away the days in Cair Paravel. It was slow repairing my occlumency barriers.

I had converted an outbuilding on the extensive grounds of Riddle Mansion into a makeshift lab. A well-placed imperio on my "father" and his parents, along with an obliviate, and they completely disregarded the building. It was a nest for my basilisk, whose egg was coming close to hatching. I had helped it along a month or two with a time-turner. When I came back to Hogwarts, my new pet would be housed in the Chamber, at least until I got the glamours on it down. Then I'd exploit my gift of parseltongue and claim it was a python or some such nonsense.

My other plans were also coming along. Magitype would be launching, and the galleons, along with what I had pilfered from Narnia and the Room, would see my vault positively flush with gold. There were other plans I had. I was still working out the kinks, but I was going to approach the goblins with an idea regarding special cards linked to ledgers. These would allow wizards to purchase items without carrying around gold. All they'd have to do was slide a card at a vendor, and the money would be transferred from one vault to another, with a couple knuts shaved off and sent to mine. The goblins loved the idea, especially since they also receive a couple knuts in for each transaction. My other idea was going to be a rectangular mirror about six inches long that could be used to communicate long distances, with a monthly fee of course.

I had taken out a subscription to the Daily Prophet. There were rumors in the paper. Rumors that inferi had been spotted across the channel. Inferi that were ravenous for human flesh. These same rumors had been reported years before in this generation's equivalent of the Quibbler.

Frankly, it got me curious. I wanted to go across the channel into France, but I knew that the British Ministry of Magic had raised coastal wards along the coast to prevent apparition from storm wizards. It begged the question as to how the Flamels kept their apartment intact.

I wasn't about to risk a portkey either. I was just so bored. There wasn't anything to do in this town besides ride horses and study, and exchange letters with the Pevensies. Peter was studying alongside Professor Kirke at Cambridge. Apparently, he had been to Narnia himself.

Susan was busy in New York. While she wasn't shopping, and enjoying the comforts of society, she had run into a group of wandless mages in midtown, that called themselves hedge witches. They used tattoos as a way to mark their proficiency levels. Susan had apparently put her wandless skills to work and was in the midst of showing them a few spells I'd refitted the circumstances for. Nothing too dangerous. We'd come to an agreement over mirror we wouldn't be showing them how to use battle magic. That was asking for trouble.

I'd also perfected my invisibility spell for messages. I'd tested it on the two of the messages future me had sent, and found two, one on each paper. The first was a triangle with a circle on top. The second was a weird trapezoidal symbol I didn't recognize. I carefully sketched those down and placed a preservation spell on the notes. It was a puzzle for another day.

Lucy had sent me a letter as well. She and Edmund had gone to Narnia for a final time apparently. They had been joined by their cousin. Reg and Minnie had been dragged into Narnia from a closet. Lucy promised to tell us more about it on the train ride.

As of right now, I was bored out of my fucking mind. There wasn't a lot I could do, and I was holding off on Time Turner usage. I had used it for the couple months to mature the basilisk, and I was probably nearly seventeen or eighteen instead of fifteen. I was going to have to curb that until I finished reverse engineering the philosopher's stone. An hour or two here or there, but until I was at Hogwarts, I wasn't going to use it.

Finances secure, I set my mind to other matters. The communications I was setting up, the new communication ideas, and the cards, they were part of a wider plan. In forty or fifty years, the muggle world would jump ahead by leaps and bounds. Cameras would become commonplace, and I had a feeling that the statue of secrecy wouldn't hold. The cards were the first step in what would one day be a move away from the gold standard. Vaults would be replaced by ledgers. I had everything I needed to make a magical computer, and I would be doing just that. Hopefully, with a few additions to the runic clusters that made the mirrors network, I could integrate them and connect them to muggle mobile communications. My next step, was to gain legitimacy in the muggle world. But first, I wanted to gain prominence in the magical. Fanon had gotten one thing right. Family rings were a thing. They weren't powerful magical artifacts, but they were a way to add a certain touch of legitimacy to claims, and the Gaunts were descendants of Slytherin.

That was how I found myself under invisibility and avoidance charms, along with cooling spells, staking out the Gaunt shack. I wanted to claim the House of Slytherin as my own. I realized that I had behaved rashly with Malfoy and Black. I'd need their friendship, their allegiance, to gain prominence in the Wizarding World. It was obvious that my former thralls were well protected. I couldn't exactly keep throwing around Unforgivables like they were candy. I think the incident over Christmas had tempered me a bit, had taught me that I might be toeing the line. The House of Slytherin would give me a sense of propriety that would allow me to befriend Malfoy and Black earnestly. I had discussed my plans with the four Pevensies, and they had agreed.

So, under cloak, I observed the Gaunt Shack. They didn't come or go, and there weren't many, any words to speak of. There was an intruder alert, but that was it.

I waited until nightfall. I had compelled my father and grandparents that I out with friends for day and following even. I broke the intruder alarm and entered the shack.

Morfin Gaunt was decrepit, he was dressed in rags, and half crazed from loneliness. I stunned him, rigged a noose around his neck, and then staged a suicide. I took the ring, and then I placed the shack under a fidelius charm, with myself as the secret keeper. I took a couple slates of marble out of my pocket, and engraved runes and the arithmetic properties for basic protection wards around the shack. I made four of them and place one at each cardinal point. The ring, I placed on a notice me not charm on the ring and walked away from the shack. I would come back eventually, and dispose of the corpse. Or add it to my growing collection. The ones from Miraz castle were still under stasis spells I renewed periodically. I simply didn't have the time to research necromancy. Besides, when I raised them. I had ideas for improving them. I need a to steal or reverse engineer automatic weapons from the nazis, and learn a bit about anatomy. But it would be worth it.

I returned home. The rest of the summer was spent reading and commuting to London under the pretense of summer studies, but in reality, I was attending board meetings and business functions under glamour in anticipation of launching my new products.


	42. Chapter 42

July 21st 1942, Warsaw, Poland.

Albus Dumbledore had seen many things. He had fought in World War I. Had held off two hundred inferi while working the spell to banish the summoning of the sea demon that the German mages had summoned to wreck the british fleet during the battle of Jutland. Had studied alchemy under the tutelage of Nicolas Flamel. Never before had he seen the depravity before him. Gellert's muggle thrall was leading an extermination campaign, and Gellert was the one who had given him the idea. Each of these charnel houses was magically warded, and powerfully so. Unless they broke the wards and led offensives against the storm wizards, which they had a lack of mages to do so, there was nothing they could do to save these poor people. These camps also had another runic component to them that stank of rituals and sacrifice. He was leading teams of wizards to evacuate those they could from ghettos across the Nazi territories, but he was short handed. His hunt for Gellert had come to a dead end. He knew his former lover was searching for something in Egypt. He had heard rumors of such from contacts he had in the Library of Alexandria that Gellert was searching for something called a chappai, or the Path to Heaven. It was rumored the artifact could be used to call forth gods. A month ago, the Axis had retaken Libyra. The Voodun were helping, but Gellert's leftenants used summoned demons in battle. The only ones capable of combating that were the Vatican. They had taken a stance of noninterference for the duration of the war.

This chappai was held under the protection of nearly three hundred of the best wandless magicians the Magician's Court could field. Giza was being held under siege by a combination of the Storm Wizards and Egyptian conjurers. Egyptian mages allied with Gellert had raised wards that the Allies curse breakers were working on picking, but it would be months before that happened.

The jewish kabbalists trapped in the ghettos were powerful, but they had been stripped of their wands and reagents when they had been forced into them. In a days time, Nazi Storm Wizards and SS soldiers would march into the ghetto and force these innocent men, women and children into trains and force them into concentration camps. He was leading teams under disillusionment spells to portal them out, but it was tough to do without bringing down a squadron of storm mages down onto their heads.

He could easily take them, but he was worried about the collateral damage such a battle would entail.

They worked through the day, and into the night. Hours before the so called evacuation was supposed to begin, they left. They had evacuated nearly all the kabbalists, and a tenth of the muggles, but it was still far to few. Albus apparated away to the safe house just as the first trucks began pulling up to disgorge the troops within.

Nicolas was waiting for him. Albus drew his wand.

"What was the first transformation you taught me?" He asked his old mentor. Gellert wasn't beyond using polyjuice or glamour.

"Air to ice. Or, the way to recombinate the oxygen and hydrogen in the air to water, and how to remove the heat." His mentor replied.

"What was the last thing I said to you before you left?"

"Be careful, for the night is dark and full of terrors." Albus replied. He had wandered about the phrase, and Nicolas had laughed and said it was a saying he had picked up in his journeys.

"What brings you here old friend?" Albus asked. He flicked his wand. A tea pot came out of the cupboard. The sink turned on, and water floated into the teapot, which set itself on the muggle stove, which ignited it's own burner. He summoned tea and sugar, which was damnable hard to find, out of the cabinet.

"I'm afraid, Albus. That you'll have to make do with time-turners in your search for Gellert. Per and I won't be able to teach at Hogwarts for the coming year. We've been drafted by Vichy France. The Allies are researching something classified, that they hope to win the war with. I'm to report to the colonies."

"Where at?"

"A barren place called New Mexico. Dreadfully boring. But the research seems to be interesting."

"What is the subject of the research?" Albus said, and took a seat. Soon, the tea made itself, and two steaming cups floated over to them. They sat in silence for a moment. Albus felt the wariness and exhaustion of the day begin settling into his bones.

"A new field of science. Still in its infancy. I had to take Oaths in order to even learn about the project. I'm afraid I can't speak of anything else regarding it." How are you?" He asked Albus.

"I'm tired. I knew Gellert had fallen. Had delved into deeper magics. Darker spells and rituals. I had know idea of the depravity he was committing." He replied. He felt tired. For the first time in his life, he felt everyone of his years. He wasn't blind to his reflection in the mirror. How his hair had bled from red to gray in the few months he had spent chasing his old friend, and occasionally even facing him across the battlefield. He had been caught up in the war. Fighting where he could, and saving those who needed it. Gellert was safely ensconced in Berlin, although there were rumours he had been spotted in preparation for an offensive in the Eastern Front. There were also rumors that Stalingrad was going to be a focal point for a push into the East.

Now these camps that Gellert had engineered. He wondered where the blond-haired boy he had spent the summer with had gone. All those plans to change the world. To make it a place of peace. Where their love could be accepted. Where children like Ariana wouldn't be feared or harmed. Where they would be safe. Where obscurials wouldn't happen. Where magic wasn't hidden, and instead it would be a wonder for all to behold. Now Gellert was allowing children to starve, forcing them unto trains bound for death and starvation. Where had that boy gone? Had he been yet another sacrifice for Gellert's so called Greater Good? Albus shook his head, clearing his mind of his reveries.

"I take it Armando wants me back?"

Nicolas nodded. Albus sighed. He had given Armando a promise that if Nicolas departed, he would take his post back.

He gave his old mentor a half smile.

"Tell me, what did I miss this previous year?"

"What do you know about Tom Riddle and Peter Pevensie?" Nicolas asked him, his face grave. His grave expression had Albus' full attention.


	43. Chapter 43

Late July, 1942.

The summer passed slowly, and fitfully. My egg was close to hatching. My meetings with the goblins had proved fruitful. As soon as I approached the ministry with a confirmed bloodline test, the vault of Tom Riddle would turn into the vault of Tom Slytherin. The old Wizengamot seat would be reactivated, and upon reaching my majority in the wizarding world, I could claim it.

The Magitype Instant Scribe would go sale in two weeks time. I had introduced the idea of pre-orders to Scrivenshaft. They got the money up front. I got mine up front. Everyone was making money. There would be a line out the door. I had to make some concessions. It was not a true muggle keyboard. The keys were arranged alphabetically. But, sense the majority of the typing was done through voice activation, that didn't matter. In addition to being a messaging system, it would also be used to write out notes. The note function was free. The messaging system was a flat monthly fee of ten sickles. It had been tricky, but I had figured out the runic clusters that would allow each of them to communicate. All had not been well in my mind.

It had been a fight to get my occlumency barriers backup to par, and a battle to lock the emotions that the memories of my past life and our stay in Narnia back behind my mental shields. More than once I had woken up after a dream of christmases past with my nephews and nieces from my old life. More than once I had woken up with my wand raised, Peter burned to a crisp from the dragon. Or ready to parry an attack from the witch that only existed in the foggy ether of my deepest terrors. And more than once had a waken up to find his side of the bed empty, and wonder where Peter had gotten off to. Only to realize we had returned to Earth, and hadn't slept in each other's arms for nearly a year and a half. I was fortunate that I had hit my growth spurt, and that my exercise regime had started paying off. At least that was one less reminder of what I had lost.

I had told my father that I was visiting friends at the orphanage for the remainder of the summer. That was false. I had other plans. We were in one of the bloodiest times in history, and since I had a trunk full of corpses, it was time to use further my skills. I had chosen my location carefully. The old cove where Tom had taken those two children. It was enclosed from the muggles. A runic key modeled off the key to diagon alley served as a door. I had my corpse trunk with me, and old copy of Secrets of the Darkest Art I had found in Salazar's library. Before even beginning my reading, I used an erasure spell to eliminate the section on horcrux. I knew how to destroy them from my previous life. I refused to destroy my sanity. I would have the philosopher's stone. That would suffice.

I took a piece of chalk out of my pocket, and prepared a pentacle. The body was stripped naked, and placed in the center. Each point was lit by a black candle. Runes of binding and control were placed in the perimeter. On the leading point, a brazier of steel was placed. The circle was sealed by a drop of my blood. A bundle of bay laurel, asphodel and chervil was placed in the brazier. I light the brazier by muggle means with a match book, and as the herbs burned, the candles lit by themselves. I read from the grimoire, and the words felt like hot grease on my tongue.

"Arise homunculus! Come now forth! By my power, return! I bring you under my command! Rise, body of that which I've killed!"

Cold shot down my spine, and an icy sweat coated my back. A wind whipped up from nowhere. I continued, my voice growing into a shout.

"Exorior! Exorior! Exorior!" The light of the brazier turned from the glow of orange fire to cold bright, blue, the candles changed color as well. The runes and pentacle I had inscribed in the ground glowed blue, and the light from the candles, the runes, they flowed into the corpse. I smelt burning meat, and smelled burning flesh as the runes and circle inscribed themselves unto the inferi's chest. It rose to its feet. It's eyes glowed with blue fire that dulled. I felt a link form between myself and the corpse. I smiled a feral grin that I knew was all teeth.

I willed the inferi to take a step forward and it did. My first step was complete.

I conjured a dummy, placed it at the far end of the island, and then I produced one of my submachine guns from a pouch. I willed the inferi to take it from me, and it did. Then I order the inferi to pull the submachine gun trigger. The construct complied. The shots went wide. Missing my target by a decent margin. But the automatic weapon was spelled with unlimited ammo, so there was no great waste. The inferi was mindless, but it would take simple orders. Zombies didn't need to breath. I felt weak from the amount of magic I had expelled, even with my prodigious skills, and power. The ritual to raise the inferi from the dead was taxing. But, according to Secrets of the Darkest Arts, that was normal. Eventually, when I gained proficiency in necromancy, I could use the spell without the ritual. There were other rituals in salazar's tome. Rituals that would increase your speed, and stamina, and healing.

Most of them simply require a bit of the caster's blood, and the proper runes. I would be working on those in the security of the chamber. I placed my new pet under a stasis spell after reclaiming my weapon, and apparated to a rented room at the Leaky Cauldron. I stripped out of my robes and clothes, and fell unto the bed. I woke that night, grabbed dinner, and spent an evening studying. I spent the few days before I was due to met the Pevensies, attending meetings with my bankers at Gringotts. I also grabbed my fifth year texts from my flat in London. From muggle London, I grabbed books on anatomy. Now that I knew how to create inferi, my next step was overcoming their weakness to fire. I couldn't alter the ritual.

But, I could clothe them in fireproof cloaks, and once I figured out how to crack carbon fiber, armor them. Then I'd add my other armaments to them. The week passed uneventfully, and soon August came. I had added two more inferi to my cove. The day before we were due back at Hogwarts, I met the Pevensie's at Mortimer's Magnificent Ice Cream. It was where Fortescue's would one day be located. The Pevensies arrived. They had all grown over the summer. I could see the traces of the men and women they were becoming again. Susan and Peter especially looked older. Edmund. Edmund looked worn. Like he did after a battle, or after we had rescued him from Her, and he had a haunted look in his eyes that I hadn't seen in years. Lucy had a grim look on her face.

"Tom, we need to talk." She said. We took a booth, and ordered a round of ice cream. After it arrive, I raised my privacy wards, coating the air around us with a shimmer of notice me nots, avoidance spells, and anti-eavesdropping measures.

"Narnia was bad Tom." Lucy said without preamble.

"We fought the witch before. How bad could it have been?" I replied.

"It wasn't the witch who was ruling Narnia this time. She had been deposed before we arrived. She had been killed by a bald headed man with a goatee who could take the form of a basilisk." She said. I felt my blood chill, felt it drain out of my face, and a knot formed in my stomach.

"He was powerful Tom. Reg and I, we were so far outgunned. Even with the wandless magic you taught me. Tom. He said his name was Salazar Slytherin. He said you." She paused.

"He said you had freed him, that you were to thank for the carnage Narnia was undergoing."

"After a fashion." I replied.

"Tom, now is not the time to be a cagey bastard. Tell me if he was telling the truth."

I pursed my lips.

"Tom. He's tapped into Narnia's Wellspring. He's an utter monster. He's killing the land. I need you to tell me if what he was saying is true." Edmund said. We had searched for Narnia's Wellspring for a few years and had found nothing.

"I can't!" I said.

"Why can't you?" She replied, her voice imperious and cold.

"Don't use the queen voice on me. I taught you that." I snapped back.

She drew her wand.

"Tom, We will come to blows."

My hackles were raised. How dare she? I threw up my occlumency barriers and threw all my anger behind them. I took a deep breath. It was Lucy. I couldn't, would not, harm her. Not in a million years.

"Stop it you two!" Susan snapped, and we turned to her.

"Tom. Why can't you?" Susan asked.

"Do any of you know what a word as bond is?" I asked.

"We all know the witch's library as well as you." Lucy replied frostily.

"Well, hypothetically. Say a boy, about the same age as me found a hypothetical lost chamber under a hypothetical Boarding School in the Scottish Highlands. Say he met a stranger with a goatee. He might have or might not have, possibly, agreed to a word as bond in exchange for tutelage and recent things that only a basilisk can produce."

"The venom that killed the Witch." Edmund breathed, and I shrugged.

"So, how did this boy hypothetically, get the beardy bastard out of this hypothetical chamber."

"The beardy bastard is tricky and knows more than the idiot boy who sought to interrogate him. It wasn't my brightest move, and the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced the boy was under some sort of compulsion. Lucy, I am so sorry. So, very sorry that I've kept it from all of you, after all these years." I felt tears come to my ears unbidden. The looks on her face. On all their faces. I was going to lose my family. I couldn't face the Witch, wandless, with nothing at my disposal. I'd sooner face death then see them turn their backs to me. I let out a ragged breath.

"You hate me now, don't you?"

"Tom, we didn't know what had happened. We just wanted clarification We could never hate you." Lucy paused, searching for her words.

"Narnia was bad this time, Tom." Lucy said.

"Salazar, he uses inferi, and he's spreading. He's attacked Archenland, and Calormen has been turned to a glassy hell along the border. Telmar is under siege by creations that makes even your idea and creations tame. He's burned the talking woods. He's enslaved the talking beasts. He's immortal, and he's trying to invade our world. Our mission wasn't even to save Narnia. It was fucking damage control to destroy a portal and stop him from invading Earth. He tortured me. He captured Edmund." Lucy said.

"No, no he didn't." Edmund spoke.

"Where did you go then?" She asked him. This must be new information to them as well.

"I don't know." Edmund confessed.

"I know I traveled to another world, and it was supposed to be ours. The portal went wrong somehow. But it was in the future, and it was bad there. Worse the Calormen. Worse than our war here. It was awful. The whole place had been burned, and people lived in squalor. They used lasers like in those silly comics you read sometimes Tom. Aslan rescued me. It was hell. There were creatures that that made me happy to be back in Narnia, despite the circumstances it was in." Edmund shuttered.

"What happened after you succeeded?" I asked.

"Aslan escorted us out of Narnia, and he told us that he would call on us when he needed us. I might have lost my temper a wee bit." Lucy said.

"How so?" I asked.

"A wee bit?" Edmund said with a snort.

"Okay, a lot bit." Lucy replied.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I had a long day. It was a bad day. Reg nearly died. Minerva was incensed. Edmund was bleeding." Lucy said.

"Edmund?" I asked.

"Aslan healed me of that and other things. I'm fine." He replied.

"What did you do, Lucy?" I asked.

"I told Aslan that I was sick of being pulled back and forth. That I was done being his play thing. I told him to not seek help from me."

"Oh, there's more." Edmund said.

"Lucy?" I gave her a look. She had a sheepish look on her face.

"I told him to bugger off and that I'd make a coat out of his pelt. God or not. That I was no one's toy. I learned that when I was captured by those pirates, and by Salazar. I am no one's prisoner or plaything. I am not being toyed with ever again." She said. There was a fierce look in her eye. A look I hadn't seen since she had been captured by those pirates.

"Then there's another thing I need to tell you. I'm not from here."

"What do you mean?" Peter asked.

"Promise you won't freak out?"

The four of them exchanged looks.

"We won't." Peter said. I took a deep breath, and I told them. I told them everything. About waking up one day in Tom's body. About being from another universe and being thrown into a world I thought was merely words on paper. About Aslan's Deal.

"Well, that wasn't entirely unexpected." Susan said.

"What?" I asked.

"Tom, you are the least child like child ever." Peter replied.

"We always thought you were just odd." Susan said.

"Or a Seer." Lucy said.

"Or just insane." Edmund said with a half smile.

"So, in these books. What happens to us?" Susan said.

"The truth?" I asked.

"The very bitter." She replied. I sighed and bent my head over. I saw my ice cream sitting it's in glass dish, melted and long forgotten.

"Peter, Lucy, Edmund. In the books, you die in seven years. There's a train crash. A horrible one, that kills you, your cousin. Every human on earth that knew about Narnia. Except for you, Susan."

"Why not me?"

"According to the books, you turned your back on Narnia. Turned your back on Aslan."

"So he kept me alive?" She said with a raised eyebrow.

"I guess. I don't know his motives."

"Well, that's moot now. Isn't it?" Peter said.

"How so?" I said.

"Well, Lucy made it quite clear she wouldn't help him. I stood by Susan when Aslan told us that we were leaving. I'm not sure about Edmund's stance, but I'm fairly certain he's on the same page as us." Peter said and gave Edmund a look.

"He took me away from my son and wife. The old lion can devour someone else's life for once. I want nothing to do with Narnia, or Him." Edmund replied.

"What about you Tom?" Susan asked.

"I go where you guys go." I said. It was true. I had thrown my fate in with theirs along the way. I'd stand with the Pevensies or fall. Our conversation lapsed into silence for a few moments. As I absorbed the information I had been given. Our conversation continued in drips and drops then, as Peter and Susan spoke about their summers, which were less eventful by far than that of their siblings.

"Lucy, you said your cousin came with you, what of him?"

"Eustace is an utter prat. He tried running away. Nearly got himself killed. Cost me two centaur." Edmund replied. I nodded and checked the time. We had been there for over an hour, and the Pevensies had wanted to beat the pre-school rush. The Pevensie's departed to grab their school supplies.

I was going to go to Scrivenshaft's and check how my products were selling, but I decided to receive the forms via message instead. I had a lot to unpack mentally, and I chose to go to my room and decompress. I spent the rest of the day contemplating what I was told, and packing for school.

We traveled to King's Cross together, and said our goodbyes. Then we boarded the Express. We found our compartment. Minerva was already waiting for us, calmly reading the final volume of the Animagus guides we were reading through. We'd worked out a weather chart using a spell and a arithmetic chart. We had complete the preliminary potions, and they were stored in a dark box in the very bottom of my trunk. We took our seats. Lucy sat next to Minerva and they launched into a chat about the latest Transfiguration Monthly. Peter and I sat next to each other. Because we were technically OWL year students, we had received our times tables early and we were discussing those. Soon, Reg joined us and he wasn't alone. Augusta Rosier joined him, and soon the train was underway.

"Where's Algie?" I asked.

"He's with his friends further down." Reg replied.

"What is she doing here?" Minerva asked stiffly.

"Augusta and I spent part of the summer together. We're spending the train ride together as well." Reg replied, and took a seat at the end of the compartment opposite and kitty corner from Minerva. Augusta sat next to him and summoned a book on herbology out of her bag. She opened the book and began reading. Lucy extended her hand and Augusta gave her a look as if the hand was covered in shit.

"You're the mudblood that has the first and second years terrified." Augusta said after a moment.

"Pleased to meet you." She said cooly, and returned Lucy's handshake. Lucy smiled.

"Miss Rosier, I'm giving you one warning. Don't call me sister that name." Peter said. His voice low. She raised her eyebrow, and gave me and Peter appraising looks.

"And you two are the mudbloods that Malfoy and Black utterly despise." She told Peter and I.

"You are the snuck up inbred bitch that is casting a diffindo on my last nerve." I replied.

"Reg, why are you even with this snake?" Minerva asked.

"Can we please have peace?" Reg asked.

"When she leaves." Minerva replied.

Lucy glared at Minerva.

"I'm a snake too!' Lucy protested.

"Lucy, it's different with you. You're Peter's little sister. Your my study partner. She's an interloper." Minerva said.

"Min!" Reg said. Augusta took a look around the compartment. I saw a quick look pass across her face. Almost a sad look.

"This interloper can see when she's not wanted." Augusta said stiffly. She gathered her things. Summoned and shrunk her trunk, and left the compartment.

"Augusta!" Reg followed after her. He gave Min a dirty look and shook his head. Then he

summoned and shrunk his things and followed after her. The rest of the trip was spent in tense silence.

We arrived at Hogwarts, and after gathering our stuff, and grabbed a thestral lead carriage. The four of us loaded our belongings and took it up to Hogwarts. Minerva and Lucy were still in deep discussion. Peter and I lapsed into a silence, not out of conflict, but to listen to the two of them discuss the ideas of transfiguration that they parried back and forth like a verbal tennis match.

We arrived at the castle. The house elves collected our belonging and I read through the sorting. Dumbledore had returned from whatever errand had taken him the year to complete. He looked as though he look hale, and healthy. Almost younger than when he had left. I immediately suspected the Flamels. I was glad those two had left. Something about them scared me, although I couldn't put my finger on what, exactly. Reg sat further down from us, with his brother. He avoided our gazes, and shot us dirty looks when he thought we weren't looking. The feast appeared and proceeded without incident. We went up to our rooms and settled in for the night. I took a dose of dreamless sleep before I went to bed. I couldn't afford the nightmares that night. Not with classes the next morning.

Tuesday came. Our first class was care of magical creatures, and covered thestrals. Something Peter and I had never studied aside in a live setting. The creatures were quite interesting. One took a particular liking to me, and I discovered that testrals were particularly attracted to those who have been around immense amounts of death. I also discovered they fed on the flesh of the dying, and a few had to have been shooed off battlefields. Despite their bony appearance, they were as strong as horses. Our next class was history of magic, and I had a nice nap. We had a free period, and I completed my essay for Kettleburn on migratory habits of thestrals.

After my free period, we reported to the transfiguration classroom, and began learning the vanishing charm. I took the opportunity to learn how to do it silently. Like most of the curriculum, I had long since learned how to use the spell verbally. After the double transfiguration session, Peter and I went to Arithmancy. It was an interesting session. We had moved on from the basics, and were now focusing on designing small rituals and how to incorporate arithmetic properties into it. For example. The pentagram, the five pointed circle, was used because five was a prime number. A heptagram would have been the next construct, but the energies within would be hard for one person to manage. A lower version of the pentagram would be the triquetra. It was why most rituals involved one, three, or five people. It was also why some rituals, such as the blood, bone and flesh ritual needed only three ingredients. We were dismissed from the class, and went to dinner. Our Astronomy practical was late that night. I took that opportunity to steal down to the chamber and ensconced my egg within.

The next morning dawned, and after a drowsy dinner, Peter and I shuffled again off to Care of Magical Creatures. Our week passed. Defense of the Dark Arts and Charms were mostly review years in preparation for the OWLS. Saturday came, and with it, the Slytherin Quidditch tryouts. Unbeknownst to us, Lucy tried out, and gained the seeker position. Apparently, the current Seeker had graduated, and no one else wanted the spot or they were too terrified to take it. She had always had a small frame and her reflexes were long honed from practice dueling and practicing with her daggers. I had taught her how to ride a broom in Narnia. Sunday morning came, and a letter was given to us by the Fifth year Prefect that Peter and I were wanted by our Head of House. We went to Dumbledore's office, where he was grading papers.

"Ah, Mr. Riddle and Mr. Pevensie. I'm so glad you could make it. Please, have a seat." He said, motioning toward the two plush looking chairs in front of his desk. We sat and rested our arms on the arms of the chair. He made a two fingered gesture with his hand, and we heard the door lock. I was instantly on guard.

"I had a most illuminating conversation with my mentor, Nicolas, and I would like you two to verify somethings for me. But first, Tom. I need to perform a spell on you, if you don't mind?"

"I consent." I said, and he took his wand, and tapped me on the forehead. Instantly. Memories flooded through me. Memories of stealing the stone. Of returning it, and being captured by the Flamels. Those fucking bastards. I had half a mind to burn them alive then and there. I instantly stood. Or tried to. Something had happened with the arms of the chair, and my limbs had literally sunk into them and were now imprisoned by chintz. As were Peter's.

"Nicolas informed me that he rummaged through his thoughts. This act, was a violation of trust on his part. I'll admit. But he informed me that you two, along with your siblings mister Pevensie, traveled to a far land. A world removed from this one. A world you grew up in. Then you returned here, children once more. Is this true?" He asked. I gave Peter a look, and he nodded. We were in deep shit. We might as well try to dig ourselves out of it.

"Yes, that's true." Peter replied. He put on his High King look, all haughtiness. Head held high, a look of indifference on his face.

"You'll be shocked to know, you aren't the only ones to experience this phenomenon. Nicolas has traveled to many worlds over the years, and I have been to a few myself. A friend of mine, Newt Scamander, is what is called a Traveler. He can traverse the Pathways between Worlds at will. What I am worried about, is you two becoming bored with the curriculum Hogwarts provides and delving into subject matter that could cause you, and your peers great harm. This is why I'm willing to take you two under my wing if you will. An apprenticeship. Would you be interested in that?" Dumbledore asked. Peter and I nodded.

"Excellent." He said with a jovial grin.

"Sir, if I may, I have a question?" Peter asked.

:"Call me Albus, Peter." Dumbledore replied.

"Albus, can my sister Lucy join you as an apprentice as well. She knows nearly as much about the Hogwarts curriculum as Tom and I do." Peter said.

"Perhaps. I have noticed that your sister is top of her class. Lucy is one of the brightest first years we have seen in decades at Hogwarts. I would be willing to consider it in the future." Albus replied.

"Now, I'm going to let you two go." He said. The armchairs released our limbs.

"I'll let you enjoy the remainder of your weekend, and I'll send a note via Prefect or Elf when I've figured out a time for the three of us to meet. Until we do so, and I've tested you. I would like you to resist performing wandless magic if possible. Can you do that?" He said. We both nodded.

"Then off you tot. Enjoy your day." He said with a grin, and we left. Thus ended our first week back at Hogwarts.


	44. Chapter 44

**AN:** Before I begin this. I've got to say. I'm sorry for the delay with this chapter. The Easter Holiday was hectic, and my school schedule has been hellish because of my approaching finals. Also, the season finale of the Magicians really put me in a bad headspace and got me thinking about this fic, and what I want to do with it. I started writing this for my own enjoyment, and mostly as a way to prove to myself that I can in fact write and finish something to completion. I gained an audience, and got kind of addicted to the likes. I ended parts of the fic I liked, out of fear of losing those likes. Then I made changes to the plot that should not have happened. This has traveled down a path I certainly didn't see when I started it. I can't promise a sequel right now. But I will finish this fic. But going forward, I am going to try and return to the fic I wanted to write.

-

BR

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It was the Friday after Albus had agreed to Mentor us. I was in the chamber. An event I had been waiting for almost a year was about to happen. My egg, my new basilisk was about to hatch. With a crack, the creature broke through the egg. It was already nearly three feet long. It's eyes would remain shut for the next month or so, and I would teach it how to use it's gaze without killing us. It broke through. A shine of amniotic fluid covered it's bright green scales, which I knew would darken over time into a deep emerald.

"At last! I'm free!" He, for the voice was masculine, crowed. It sniffed around. The egg was accompanied by a toad that had incubated it. The basilisk turned to the toad and struck. I watched in wide-eyed horror as my basilisk ate the toad that had sat on it and warmed it for the last year. Cad certainly hadn't done that. Then it turned to me.

"I smell someone else." It hissed.

"You smell me." I hissed back.

"I am your master." I said.

"I have no master!" The snake said petulantly.

"Yes, you do. I guarded your egg, and compelled the toad you just devoured to sit upon it until it hatched." I replied. It hissed again. This wasn't a greeting or anything, it was low growl that I took to mean as a warning and slithered closer, and I flicked my hands into a gesture. An orb of white light surrounded the basilisk, and it hissed out a warning again.

"I will break your bones and sip your marrow! Let me free!" He hissed.

"Absolutely not!" I replied.

"Absolutely yes!" It retorted, and tried breaking to containment spell.

"Look buddy, I don't know what your problem is, but you are mine. I created you. I am your life and death. You will obey me." I said, throwing every bit of compulsion I could bring to bear into my voice. The snake looked like it was moping.

"Fine, if it gets me food, the little speaker can be my master." He grumbled.

"Good, now let's talk about names." I said.

"You may call me, your majesty." The basilisk replied.

"No, I'm not calling you that. I've know real kings. You are but a little hatchling. You shall be known as Immortalis." I told my basilisk. It was the name of a dragon from a book I'd read a lifetime ago. It was a strong name for a strong creature.

"I like the name." Immortalis said after a moment.

"I'm glad you do. Now, I'll return soon, but for now. Rest here. I'll have food sent to you or bring it myself."

"Where are you going?"

"There's magic to be done this night, young basilisk, and I will be it's worker." I told him. He bobbed his head and I departed for the chamber. I left it, and returned to my dorm.

I arrived in my dorm and began getting ready for the ritual. I needed my potion, which was stored in a dark box deep in my chest. Minerva had retrieved her own, and was waiting for me. The clouds were already darkening outside Hogwarts, the promise of an autumn storm in the skies. I grabbed the potion in its box, and put that on a pouch in my belt. Reg was in the greenhouse. The other two Gryffindor boys weren't present. But Peter was. He was studying and researching our first assignment from our new mentor, Albus Dumbledore. He was lounging on the bed. He had grown taller these last few months. He had always been gangly, even when I had first met him, and he was taller still. He looked up from the scroll he was reading from.

"I'm heading out." I told him. He had been distant lately, and I had wondered why.

"Tom, wait." He said, and got up from his bed. He walked over to me.  
"What?" I asked.

"I've been thinking." He paused. Searching for words. In that moment, yet again I could see that king he been once, and the man he would become again. Despite us losing our adulthood and home, and the kingdom we had once ruled side by side, Peter would always be a king.

"When we returned here. I told you that we should stop our relationship. That we should end something that was good. Something that made me happy for years. You promised me when we first faced her across the field, that you would be by my side until the very end. I want that back. I want us back. I've faced down dragons, and witches, and everything dark and foul that crawled Narnian soil. I faced them all with you covering my back, and tonight, you are going out into this storm without me. Tom Riddle, I love you, and I can't see my life without you in it. Are you with me?"

The world stopped in that moment. After what felt like a century, but was probably a second, I nodded. We embraced, and tears of joy ran down my cheeks. After a moment we parted. Then we kissed. It was like the waves of Cair Paravel crashing down on the rocks. He tasted like sun and smelt like old books and worn leather. I felt lighting and heat travel down my spine. Like a piece of me that I was missing suddenly was found.

"Until the the very end." I whispered hoarsely. He nodded, and we embraced again. Resting our foreheads against each others. Just standing there. Enjoying the moment, enjoy each other's company. A silence of companionship born of two decades. I heard the distant rumble of thunder from the open window. The storm was maybe ten or fifteen minutes out, and I had to hurry.

"I've got to go." I murmured. He nodded.

"Good luck tonight." He said.

"Thank you." I replied, and then I ran for the astronomy tower. There wasn't classes that night, or else we would have had problems.

Minerva was waiting for me. Her lips were in a firm line. It was close to sundown. The sky was tinged orange and red, and darkening quickly from the storm. Already the winds had whipped up, we could hear the howl of it through the glass. The rain had begun to come in drips and drops and was peppering the glass dome of the tower. Holes around the edges that were once balistarium now held telescopes. She had dressed in her robe. The ritual required us to be skyclad, and we quickly conjured a thick black canvas curtain between us. We had mutually agreed, that even though we were friends, some things are better left unseen. We stripped out of our clothes, drew our respective circles, and took our potions out of the boxes. Then we pointed our wands to our chests, and began chanting the spell.

_"__Amato Animo Animato Animagus__."_ Again and again we chanted the spell, our rhythm and cadence joining that of the storms. As the thunder crashed overhead, and lightning tore through the skies, we downed the animagus potion and uttered the incantation one final time. I felt my body begin to shift. Bones broke, and tore and reformed. A prickly sensation coursed through my skin. It feel like goosebumps, and I felt my skin break and bleed as it was covered in fur or something else. I felt my legs contract. My toes grow together and curl. My nails lengthed. My arms merged into two long limbs and compacted and shrunk. I tried to scream, but it came out as a screech instead. I felt my throat burn and constrict and then, as abruptly as the change ripped my body to shreds and reformed it, it stopped. I felt my body tremble, and shake. Then it stopped. The color had drained out of the world. Instead, it was a cascade of vibrant blacks, whites and greys. I tried taking a step forward, and promptly fell unto my face. I gave out a hoot? And attempted to right myself. I succeeded in shifting unto my back.

I needed to turn back to human. This form was a bust. I gathered my will and forced myself back to human form. I stood and dressed.

"Min? Are you here?" I asked. There wasn't a reply. I dressed quickly, and crossed the barrier. She was gone. I couldn't find here. Then I heard a sound from up to, and something jumped unto my shoulder from one of the tall bookcases containing star charts that lined the room. I looked to my left, and there was a cat with spectacle markings crouched smugly on my shoulder. She was half grown, half-way between an adult and a kitten. Paws that were to big for the body. A long tail, with a body that had yet to catch up and tortiseshell fur. Her eyes were the same blue as her human form.

"Min?" I asked. The cat bobbed it's head and batted my on the cheek. Then it jumped from my shoulder, and landed in a sprawl that she somehow righted herself from. She gave a soft mrr and then rubbed herself against my bare feet.

"I see someone likes their new form. Can you turn back to human? I think I need help with mine. She bobbed her head again and crossed behind the other curtain.  
"Tommy, toss me my clothes and me wand." She said, and I complied.

"I'm going to try something first, then I'll help you." She said. A few minutes passed, and she tore around the corner in her cat form. She shifted back in a blur, and I quickly turned around, covering my eyes.

"Tom, don't be daft. I'm changing with my clothes." She said, I turned back around. She had her arms crossed impatiently.

"Now, shift." She said.

"But what about my clothes?"

"You dolt. They'll change with you. Go on, shift." She said impatiently.

I listened to her. The transformation was easier this time. The pain wasn't so sharp. It was more like cracking your knuckles, or the satisfying pop of cracking your neck after craning it all day. Once again the colors faded away. I looked up at Minerva. She let out a squeal.

"Tommie you're sooo cute!" She yelled. I saw her reach down and then suddenly I was in her hands.

"Oh, your a wee owl! A wee scoop owl! Your feathers are the same color as your hair!" She said. I'm ashamed to admit, I nipped her hand.

"Oh, that wasn't nice!" She said.

"So, what's the problem with your form?" She said. I jumped out of her hands, and instinctually spread my wings and glided downward. I landed and shifted back.

"I can't walk." I muttered.  
"What was that?" She asked.

"I can't walk." I said clearly, and she laughed.

"Of course you can't walk that well." She said.

"You're an owl. You fly." She said. I gave her a look, and wished I'd drawn blood when I had nipped her.

"Okay. It's time we try something else." She said.

"Shift back." She told me, I complied. She scooped me up again and I gave out a disgruntled hoot.

She set me up on one of the higher shelves, and then stepped away.

"Now, try to fly from one shelf to the other." I gave out a hoot, and then jumped off the shelf, extended my wings, and glided. I landed in a tumble of feathers. I tried it again, and I quickly gained aptitude flying around. We did this for a while until Minerva added an element to my exercises. Having a cat chase me gave an extra burst of ambition to master my skills of flight quickly. We continued this for a few hours, and then, once both of us were tired and acquainted with our forms, we stole back to our tower cloaked under dissilusionment. As I fell into bed, I felt content. This was going to be a good year.


	45. Chapter 45

Fall faded away into November. Halloween came and went, and the first week of November blanketed the castle with a heavy snowfall that lasted for a week. Quidditch games were canceled, and even with warming charms, the outside was unbearably cold, thus forcing everyone to stay inside until the weather cleared or at least warmed enough to be outside. Peter and I, along with Reginald and Minerva had staked out a corner of the common room, and were playing our millionth round of Exploding Snap. I had chosen to sit this round out. I was reading an old copy of Transfiguration Monthly. There was an article on Alchemy that had me interested. I was so close to cracking the philosopher's stone. I was just missing something.

I sat the article down, and lounged in the plush armchair and rubbed the bridge of my nose, looking over the common room. A group of sixth had invited a Ravenclaw into the Common Room. Some sort of chess match that had sprung up. A couple third years sat cross legged from each other. In one corner. Two seventh years were having a mock duel, using stunners and shields. I had half a mind to go over there in wipe the floor with both of them. Among the lower years, the rumor of mine and Peter's duel from previous years in the DaDa class and spread and no one would mock duel with us.

In another corner, a large third year, one Rubeus Hagrid had a large cardboard box. He had the lid pushed backward slightly. He had a plate of meat, rare meat, that he was slowly dropping into the box piece by piece. I frowned and stood up straighter. There was definetely something going on there. I lightly tapped Peter's leg with my foot, and he instantly gave me a look. I made a small gesture with my head in Rubeus' direction. I made a square with my hands, and held it up to my face. There was definetly something in that box. I stood and walked over to Rubeus. Peter on my heels, Minerva and Reg behind him.

"Whatcha got there Rubeus?" I asked. He looked up at me.

"Oh, nothing. Just a pet me dad gave me." He stammered.

"Can I see it?" I asked.

"Sure!" He said.

"Aragog is a bit timid, so be nice." He said. He opened the box. There a spider the size of a fuckin cat in the box. I fought my urge to recoil. The spider hissed at me and recoiled sharply.

"What kind of spider is that?" I asked.

"Oh, he's just a wee acromantula. Won't grow much bigger than this. I just keep him in the box because he likes the dark you see." Acromantula. He had a godsdamned acromantula. Those things grew to the size of horses, if not bigger. That kind of creature. Inside a school. Peter came up to me and grabbed my wrist so that my hand was touching his inner arm.

"I've never seen one of those before. Well, Hagrid. I've got to go. I forgot about a book I need from the Library." I said, and traced out a message on Peter's inner wrist with my finger. F-O-L-O.

He barely nodded, but I knew he had recieved the message.

"Okay Tom! Have a good day." I smiled back at him and left the common room at a brisk pace. As soon as I exited, I ran down the hallway and ran for Dumbledore's office. I came to a stop at his door and pounded on his door.

"Enter!" He said cheerfully. He was at his desk. Grading papers.

"Professor, we have a problem." I said. His jovial smiled turned into a frown.

"What's the matter Tom?" He asked.

"Rubeus Hagrid has a Acromantula he's keeping as a pet." I said. The color drained from Albus' face.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked, and I nodded. He stood up, went to his fireplace and threw a pinch of powder from the mantle, and threw it in.

"Headmaster's Office!" He said, then he stuck his head in the fire.

"Armando. We have a situation in the Gryffindor Common Room. If you'd gather the other heads of house, and meet me there. I'd appreciate it." He said.

"Come along Tom." Albus said and I followed. We went to the common Room. Professor Merrythought, head of Hufflepuff was already there. Professor Flitwick had arrived. Soon Headmaster Dippet and Professor Slughorn arrived.  
"What's the matter?" Professor Merrythought said.

"A student has a five X creature. An acromantula. We need to neutralize it." Albus said, and the five of them walked into the common room. We had only been gone a few minutes, and the atmosphere of the common room hadn't changed much. I slunk off to the side and the five of them approached Rubeus.

"Rubeus, I'm sorry. But I'm afraid your pet is dangerous. He'll have to come off with us."  
"Professor. Aragog wouldn't hurt anyone."

"My boy, that spider is dangerous." Albus reached out for the box. Rubeus moved faster then his size belied. He tipped the box over, and the spider ran. Professor Merrythought moved. Faster than me when I was at my full strenght and stamina. Faster than I could move, despite years of experience. She moved and with a clean, quick, gesture, trapped the spider in a sphere shaped forcefield of magical energy. The spell was smoother than anything I could do with wandless magic. I realized then and there that I had so much to learn.

"The acromantula is contained." She said. Rubeus was crying softly. Then he saw me.

"You!" He bellowed, and ran toward me. Before I could react, he picked me up and slammed me into the wall, driving the air out of my lungs. He punched me in the face, right in my eye. I felt something crack.

"Let him go." Peter said. I looked over. My boyfriend had his wand raised, it's end lit with the red light of a stunner.

"Mr. Hagrid, put Mr. Riddle down." Headmaster Dippet said. A note of warning in his tone. Rubeus was crying, big fat tears.

"I just want Aragog." Rubeus said, and dropped me to the floor. I landed in a heap. Professor Flitwick gestured once, and magic wrapped around Rubeus' hands, pinning them together. They led Rubeus and his pet away. Peter and Rigel helped me up, and they escorted me to the hospital wing.

I had done the right thing, so, why, I wondered, did I feel so horrible?


	46. Chapter 46

Rubeus had fractured part of my cheekbone, and my eye socket. Had it not been for magic, I might have lost the use of my eye, and been permanently disfigured. I spent a night in the Hospital Wing regrowing part of my face.

Rubeus Hagrid was expelled from Hogwarts, his wand was snapped and his spider destroyed.

Soon, Christmas came. I stayed at the school. Peter and Lucy went home to their family. The basilisk was growing. But Immortalis was, off, for lack of a better word. Cad was friendly. Sociable. Lovable for a giant snake that could kill you with a look. Immortalis was none of these things. More than once I had to protect myself with magic to stop him from trying to attack me. I began to avoid the chamber. Preferring to work on various magical tools in the room of requirement. I was starting to perfect my magical armor. The flight systems were working, as was the armor. I had the fitted helmet with small mirrors to allow me to view outside of it, and had enchanted extrasensory spells into them so I could have a 360 degree field of vision. I had also began adapting my weapons, the much used flintlocks to fire off reductos instead of projectiles. In time, I wanted to adapt the spells on these to fit inside my armor's hands. In late May, Peter and I sat our OWLS along with the fifth year class.

Near the end of the year, Immortalis' behavior came to a head. He snuck out through a pipe in the chamber. Myrtle Warren died, as the did the watery eyed professor. It took all five of the heads of house, but Immortalis died in the end. The Chamber was discovered. Fortunately, I had removed everything of value. When I had learned of Cad's demise I was heartbroken. Immortalis was a danger. I also felt remorse that Myrtle had died. She was a pain in my ass, but she was an innocent.

Lucy and Peter found me one night, before we left school for the summer. We would leave the next morning.

It was sunset. I was sitting by the Lake's edge. Idly skipping rocks over the water. Peter sat beside me and wrapped his arm around me. Lucy sat on my right, and leaned against me.

"What's wrong?" Peter said.

I gazed over at the setting sun. It looked like fire over the lake. I sighed.

"Do you think I'm evil? " I asked. I had done a lot of wrong. The past couple of years alone. Miraz's castle. Now this incident with Myrtle, and Rubeus earlier that year. My mental barriers had finally been brought back up to strength. But nightmares still woke me from a dead sleep. Images of burned Narrowhaven babes and Telmarine civilians. Their ghosts and faces haunted my dreams. The carnage of Aslan's How. More than once Peter had woken me, my screams breaking through the privacy spells I had thrown up, magic in my hand. Sparks flying from my fingertips, ready to harm or shield. Echoes of Trufflehunter's dying wails ringing in my ears.

Lucy spoke first.

"I think you do the best you can." She said softly. I looked at her.

"Tom, we've all done things we're not proud of. In defense of Narnia. Here. None of us are perfect. You can go to extremes, but if you were evil, would you be asking yourself that question?" She said.

Peter looked at me, a look in his eyes.

"Tom. You have a lot of guilt on your shoulders. You act like the whole world rests on them. We could have talked you out of Narrowhaven. Could have found another solution to Miraz. Could have stopped you from hatching another Basilisk. We all missed Cad. Asl.. God knows we have. We all wanted him back. We probably should have stopped you." Peter said.

"What's going on?" A voice behind us asked. It was Rigel. Him and Augusta Rosier were walking side by side. Minnie prowled beside them in her cat form. I idly raised a privacy screen, and she shifted back to human. Augusta had been treated as an outsider at first, but we had come around to her. The fact that she had defended Lucy a couple times from Slytherin morons had helped, and she had gotten dragged along on a Fillory adventure with Reg and Lucy one weekend.

Lucy nudged me.

"Tom think he's the next dark lord." She said.

Rigel snorted.  
"Doubtful." He said.

"Oh, I can't wait to tell everyone the dark lord is a scoop owl!" Minerva said, and I glared at her and she gave me a look.

I sighed. WIth a flick of my wand, my name appeared in thin air, and arranged itself. That hated name. That reviled sentence. I am Lord Voldemort.

"What's that?" Peter asked.

"Something that I saw once." I said.  
"Something I wish I never knew about. That could very well be my future." I said.

"You don't have it in you." Augusta said.

"What?" I asked.

"Tom, I've seen Dark. I'm a Rosier. We're not on the level of the Blacks, but I've seen enough of the Dark. Of Black Magic. You have the feel of it around you, no doubt. But, my family entertained Grindelwald once. I was five or six, but he had a fundamental wrongness about him. Something was broken in him. You don't have that." Augusta said. I wasn't sure I believed her.

"Just, I need you all to promise me. If I ever get to the point where I'm to far gone. I need you guys to stop me." I said. I saw the color drain out of Peter's face.

"Tom, you act as though I wouldn't be by your side with every step." He said.

"I call dibs on Dark Lady!" Lucy said, breaking the tense mood with a sentence. I laughed. Together, we watched the last sunset of the school year. Despite my fears. Despite my worries, for those few moments, all was right in the world.


	47. Chapter 47

We traveled to King's cross. My father's valet was waiting for me, and we traveled to Little Hangleton. Where I promptly apparated from after a week. By now the compulsions were so deeply ingrained, they paid little attention to my comings and goings. I had things to do this summer. My first stop was the Goblins, where, after a meeting to determine how my business was going, I stopped by my lab. Our next invention, since the handheld mirrors launch had gone so well, were mirror portals. After that, I visited my solicitor to file the paperwork to claim the House of Gaunt. They had zero assets, their hovel that I had under fidelius charms proved that. I could build wealth. I was building wealth. But wealth wasn't as important as a name. I didn't give a flying fuck about the Gaunt name, but through them, I could gain the name of Slytherin. I would rebuild the House of Slytherin, and drag it out of antiquity. It would into a name that would be feared and respected. I spent a month at my apartment building in London. I had moved to a muggle one, bought a whole building. Using a combination of funds pilfered from my family, and the Mind Arts. I used my father to create an account at Barclay's Bank and after giving the goblins the account number and SWIFT codes for the account, started transferring a portion of my funds into muggle currency. I went on a bit of spending spree. Who knew that war was such a great time to buy property?! In that month, I finally cracked the Philosopher's Stone. I still had access to the Time Turner I had been given back in my third year, and I abused the hell out of. Linearly, three weeks passed. In reality, using the many rooms of the building I had purchased, I spent two years constantly running experiments with the Time Turner, and managed to perfect a working model of it. I also spent two years making almost five hundred pounds of gold that I would slowly sell to the muggles. It was a mad money fund incase things happened.

I spent some time seriously contemplating what I was going to do after I graduated from Hogwarts.

Our OWLS had come in, and of course we got Outstandings across the board.

Brakebills had tapped Peter and I take to their exam after we were done with the NEWTS. The Goblin's had made overtures to me about joining their Cursebreaker apprenticeship. However, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend more time in school. I was starting to chafe at Hogwarts. I didn't see myself being restricted to three more years of school, or giving glory to the goblins. I wanted to gain Masteries at some point, but I wanted to focus on my buisnesses first. That, and I had some red in my ledger. I needed to find a way back to Narnia and take Salazar down, and research Niffins. My son was a Niffin, if I could find a way to restore him to human form, I'd do anything to make that happen. I knew I'd be dropping almost all of my classes at Hogwarts aside from Runes, Defense, Arithmancy Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration. Money would not be an issue, neither would places to live.

In other fronts, I worked on my armor, integrating my pistols into my armor. I apparated to battlefields or various nazi armor depots and tested these in live fire situations. The bodies I stole for my zombie army. It was nearly two hundred strong now and stored inside the cove which was under heavy magical protection and magically automated machine guns and booby traps. After my stint in London, I spent the balance of summer in Finchley. I instructed Peter and Lucy in their animagery studies. We were aiming to complete their transformation when we returned to Hogwarts. Until the last week of summer, things were fine. When I stayed in Finchley, I stayed in the guest room. I disliked sleeping by myself, and I had one of my signature nightmares. I woke in the middle of the night, in a cold sweat. My privacy wards barely holding back my screams. In the nightmare, I was in that clearing where that dragon attacked. Instead of me saving Peter, killing it, and saving the day, he killed Peter and then started to eat me. I got out of bed, and without thinking, did the one thing that I had always done. I went to Peter's room, slamming the door behind me. I crawled into his bed, and after a moment, he woke up.  
"Tom?" He asked sleepily.

"Another nightmare?" He asked, and I nodded. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me on the forehead. We snuggled together, and fell asleep. Then his mother found us in the morning, snuggled together, in our underwear. The confrontation that followed wasn't pretty. Words were said by all sides, and it ended with me departing the Pevensies, with Peter. We arrived at my apartment and went living room.

Peter sat on the couch I had, lowered his head unto my shoulder, and cried.

"I just don't understand." He said.

"I've never seen that kind of hate from her before." He said, his voice muffled by chest. I wrapped my arms around him.

"She'll come around." I murmured. I wasn't sure if that was the truth. I had memories of my old life. I was from a small town in my old life, and even in the twenty-first century, people were bigoted.

"I'm not sure." Peter said.

"Peter. If your mother isn't willing to accept us. To accept you, as you are. We will survive. You will survive. Your siblings won't turn their backs on us." I said. I didn't know what to say. For an hour, we just sat there. Peter curled into me.

"I did this." I said, finally.  
"What?" He said, sniffling.

"Go back home. Tell your mother that I'm a depraved homosexual, a poof. Whatever. Get your family back." I said.

He pushed away.

"Fuck that." He said.

"What?"

"Tom, for the last twenty odd years of my life. You, my siblings. Have been the only constants in my life. I won't walk away from you. Ever. It will not happen.. I meant what I said. In this life, in the next, and the one after that, and the one after that. I will be by your side. I don't care if my parents come around. I'm with you." He said.

"Until the very end." I said, and he nodded. For the remaining week, Peter and I settled into our new life of cohabitation. He joined me in the lab as an assistant. I sparred with him in the training rooms and we worked on his animagus transformation. We kept in contact with the Pevensies via mirror. The house had settled into a cold tense silence. We didn't talk about what had happened. September First came, and we departed for Hogwarts.

We settled into our routine. Lucy joined the Quiditich team as a Seeker.

October came, and a year to the day after I had become an animagus, Peter and Lucy completed their transformations. Lucy was a honey badger. Peter was a lion. Our weekends were filled with forest runs. Me in the air, the three of them on the ground. Reg didn't have the ability to transform as it turned out. Augusta and Reg hadn't been to Fillory in almost a year. The war outside raged and time passed.

Summer came. I launched my Mirror portal. I launched them first within Gringotts. Instead of massive industrial floos to transport minerals and gold, Mirror portals could be used instead.

They launched to the public, and the Ministry instantly put in an order for them.

The situation with the Pevensies imploded overnight, and the three of them appeared on my doorstep one night, dressed in Pajamas. They spent the rest of the summer with me. Susan refused to talk about what had happened. I compelled the Headmaster of their boarding school to accept Edmund and Susan. Peter and I considered our future after our final year. We would sit our NEWTS that coming May. I perfected my armor, and was moving on to other projects. New spells for warding and battle. Research into Niffins. I almost wanted to attend Brakebills just to plunder their library. I also wanted to learn healing magics. Lucy was the healer. She was determined to go to Saint Mungo's.

That summer passed, and soon, Peter, Lucy and I boarded the Express to Hogwarts. The Pevensies departed for their boarding school. The year had yet to start, and I was ready for it to be over. 


	48. Chapter 48

We arrived at Hogwarts, for two weeks all was well. Then, one morning, Lucy got a letter from her cousin Eustace, forwarded to her via Edmund. Eustace and Jill Poole, a school mate of his, had returned to Narnia. Salazar had apparently solidified his hold over Narnia and established a royal dynasty. I was shocked. He had turned Narnia into a powerhouse. Then, some upstart witch had lead a rebellion. This Lady of the Green Kirtle had raised an army of Giants, and Salazar's heir had used some sort of magic to pull them there. They had fought in the battle, and then Aslan had shown up. Something about beating school children with a bullwhip. From what I gathered from the letter, Narnia had become very human centric, and Salazar had united that world. He had apparently settled down, losing his drive to invade earth. I didn't buy it.

The three of us gathered in the Room of Requirement under cover of privacy spells.

Lucy conjured a trio of armchairs for us, and we sat in a circle.

"Edmund and Susan should be here discussing this with us." She said. I nodded my head in agreement. I hadn't gotten around to getting them a time turner yet.

"What's there to figure out?" Peter asked, I raised an eyebrow and looked at him.

"Narnia is closed to us, right?" He asked, we both nodded.

"Well, unless we find those rings you told us about Tom, we're not going back there. What kind of research did you leave behind in Narnia?"

I closed my eyes, and dove into my memories using occlumency.

"Mirror portals in Archenland. Probably magitypes in the main concourse. I got all the books out of my study. I sealed my redundant lab before we left the first time. He shouldn't be able to find it. It was under double fidelius to just find the location. There were so many defenses in that lab, including a few booby traps. He'd die if he found it. Flat out."

"What's in the lab?"

"Umm, prototypes for my muskets and flintlocks. Those self duplicating arrows that I never cracked. Nothing to bad. I kept all the dangerous shit in my main lab which I packed up and took with me."

"Did you leave any kind of bullshit?" Lucy asked.

"What?"

"Tom, we know you've always experimented with things better left alone. Was there anything like that in Narnia?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all. I always made sure to keep all that in the main lab. I didn't want Calormen to gain access to things better left alone." I said.

"That's fair." Lucy said.

"Now, is there anything you could create to stop him, if we got access to Narnia?" Lucy asked.

"There's a few things, Lu, but. I think we should leave this alone."

"What, Tom. Narnia is ours." Lucy said.

"No, Lucy. It's not." Peter said.

"It was. We ruled well and proudly. But, Narnia isn't ours anymore. To them, we're just some characters from a storybook. It's time to put that time behind us. That being said. Tom, do you have any plans if he comes to earth?"

I pursed my lips.

"Possibly. I have the inferi, and they're mostly armed with implanted submachine guns. I can try and adapt the reducto pistols to them, but the firing rate is off, and I'd need a way to power them. There's something else I could implant in them. It's from a book from my old world. It's basically liquid fiendfyre, combined with greek fire. But, I wouldn't even know where to begin with it's creation."  
"How about we don't use that?" Peter asked, and I nodded.

"I agree." Lucy said. I had to agree, I was just spitballing. Wildfire was dangerous, and I wasn't sure if I could control it. I could deploy it inside some sort of tandem with a spell that starved the area around it of oxygen, but I didn't have means to test that.

"I also have my armor. If I can find a way to automate, perhaps by charming it with the piototor spell, I could in fact have an army of flying robots to defend earth. I can also dive into my more inventive repertoire." I said. I had a few ideas I'd never consider actually. Runic traps that converted air around it into nerve gas or spelled with an aerosolized flesh eating bacteria. Ideas that would unleash long term side effects after they left the area. If I could gain access to a disease center or figure out the genetic blueprint to certain diseases. Well, there's a reason why I had a few tomes sealed away and obliviated from my memory. I'd learn that sometimes that harshest option wasn't the best.

"Who invented that spell?" Lucy asked.

"Hmm?"

"It's something I learned in my arithmancy class. Sometimes the creator of a spell leaves a backdoor in it if you will. A failsafe or countercurse in case their spell or enchantment is used against them."

"That's a good question. I believe that the spell was invented during the crusades, but since Salazar has been around for centuries. It could be him. Could have been one of the Founders. It was first used in Hogwarts. I know that much. I could change the spell." I said.

"Any ideas Peter?" Lucy asked.

"Don't look at me. You two and Edmund are the planners. Give me a thousand men, and I can lead them. I don't play around with things that could melt my face. I know how to stick them with the pointy end." Peter said. I rolled my eyes.

Lucy checked the time with a spell.

"I've got to get to class soon, and I'm reaching the upper end of a single time turn." She said. We both nodded. NEWT Year was ninety percent self study, and aside from a few set classes that were reviews and practice tests, Peter and I didn't have a set schedule. We left the Room of Requirement.

Aside from that incident, our final year at Hogwarts passed without incident. Lucy was an amazing seeker. She had years of experience riding brooms due to Narnia. We sat our NEWTs, and graduated Hogwarts with little fanfare. At the end of the year, Lucy successfully tested into her fifth year. The War ended, and Albus came home. A new wand in his hand, a look of loss in his eyes that I'd seen reflected in mine and Peter's after years of combat. He tutored us in the basics of wandless magic.

Summer came. Peter and I had identical NEWT scores, and with a series a perfect Outstandings, offers flooded in from all over the world. Castelobruxo. Brakebills. Uagadou. The British Ministry. All of them wanted us for our NEWT scores. Offering secondary education and possibly teaching positions. I declined them all, but Peter accepted Brakebills. Their library was famous for the astounding range of knowledge it contained. Peter wanted our son back, and I had to agree, but I was done with school. I threw myself into our businesses, both muggle and magical. I had long since learned to diversify, and I poured money into stocks and businesses I knew would become successful.

Upon my Seventeenth birthday, I claimed the House of Slytherin. In the magical world, I was Thomas Slytherin. The name, coupled with the galleons I threw around, and my natural charisma and compulsion abilities soon saw me rise in magical society. In the muggle, I was Thomas Riddle, the long lost son of the Hangleton Riddles.

Tom was my birth name, to be sure, but Thomas had more of a regal feel to it, and I had long since changed it.

1945 passed, and blurred into 1946. Peter and I bought a house in the Hamptons. We communicated with mirrors and portals when he was at Brakebills and rarely separated when he was on weird breaks Brakebills called vacations.. Susan received an acceptance letter to the University, and she joined Peter in researching and copying their library.

All was well until 1947. In May, a little town in New Mexico made headlines. I was in New York City at the time, overseeing expansion of my father's businesses. I read the newspaper, and decided to investigate by myself.

I spun back time, and staked the site out. I was alone, and was wearing a special suit I had created under my clothes. It was made of spider silk, spun from compelled spiders who had also engraved the magical formulae and runes for spells designed for stealth. The ship crashed, and I entered it's LZ. I threw up a series of privacy spells, knowing I wouldn't have long until the army arrived. I found a hatch, and it opened. I threw up a bubblehead charm and entered the shuttle. It was small, and shaped like a saucer. I wondered what had happened. I wandered into the cockpit. Holographic displays showed warning messages in a language that looked similar to runes, but also extremely different. The two pilots were dead in their seats. Both of them were in some sort of suit that appeared to be an environmental hardsuit. A third was sitting in a chair. Some sort of weird helmet covered them. I took an empty trunk and levitated the body into it. An odd looking pistol was on the ground. I knew I didn't have time, to look over everything in the ship. So I grabbed the pistol, and the body and then went to look for any sort of storage locker. I found the crew quarters and put everything that wasn't nailed down into my trunk, broke my spells and apparated away to my house. I went into a warded sub basement and laid the body down on a metal table I usually used for experimenting on Inferi. I put on a pair of rubber gloves, conjured a bubblehead charm, and began searching for a latch on the helmet. After some experimentation. I found it. The helmet folded into the suit. Staring up at me were the dead eyes of a Salarian.

I paused, and frowned.

"Well, this certainly changes things, doesn't it?" I said aloud, and pursed my lips. Things just got a whole lot more complicated.


	49. Possible Epilogue and Updates

AN; This is the best possible future epilogue. It might happen. It might not. Just an idea that wouldn't leave me the hell alone.

1998.

It was sunny out, and I apparated to the spot she had sent me. It was a cafe in Diagon. Minerva was almost seventy, and had taken over Hogwart eleven years ago when Albus had decided to retire and live out his golden years in Bermuda. Peter had been invited, but our business was strong and despite our son's return to us, Magitype Global still had to be run. Even though Susan oversaw the day-to-day operations, we still helped out with long term planning. The three of us were planning on retiring soon, as soon as Edward's boy graduated Oxford.

She was prim as always, and I took a spot and ordered tea. The service arrived and I fixed myself a cup.

"How have you been Minerva?" I asked, after taking a sip of my tea.

"Oh, I'm fine." She said. She took a small silver flask from her pocket and poured a healthy splash of amber liquid into the cup. I gestured with a finger, and a stream of the liquor diverted itself from the flask, and poured into mine.

I took a sip of my tea.

"Yet, your lacing your tea with firewhisky." I murmured.

She gave me her best headmistress look and I pointedly ignored it.

I had grown up with her. I was immune to that look. I ignored the chill that went down my spine and the urge to look away.

She paused for a moment.

"It's that bloody Potter Boy, and his two sidekicks."

"Ah, yes. Rigel's grandson, and the first-gen girl. Granger. You know I've had my eye on her, and if Fogg doesn't snatch her up. I will." Magitype had an internship, and Hogwarts was definitely one of the feeder schools for that. Had the Weasley Twins decided to not go into business for themselves, I would have snatched them up. Gods knew their brother Bill was an amazing magician. I had nearly had to kill the Goblins to get him. There were a few that slipped through my grasp. Lily Evans. Severus Snape. Evans and Snape had gone to Brakebills, and had married a few years ago.

"Tom. I thought that when I survived the Weasley twins, I could survive anything! That boy has test my patience and I'm at the absolutely end of my rope. It's his Father and Black reborn I tell you!" She said. There was wild look in her eye. I chuckled. I had done a brief stint as Adjunct for Transfiguration during the reign of terror those two had lead during Hogwarts had been a few interesting years.

"Of course, Potter and Black weren't the brains behind the operation." I said smugly.

"Of course not. It was Remus Lupin." She said and took a bite of the cucumber sandwiches that were part of the service. I scoffed, and she raised an eyebrow at me.

"Good guess, Minnie. It was Pettigrew." I said.

"Little Peter Pettigrew?" She said, and I nodded. We moved through the tea service. I took a cigarette out from a silver case and lit it with my finger. Then I took a deep drag. Peter would kill me if he caught me smoking. I offered her one, and she grinned mischievously and took it, lighting it with her own bit of wandless magic. According to our respective partners, we had quit years ago. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

"Oh come on Minnie. You've seen Potter Senior grades. Great at Transfiguration, but not really much else. Black was amazing at Dark Arts and Defense and Runes, but that's typical with regards to his upbringing." I said. I still feuded with the Blacks. At least Lucy did, while the Wizengamot was in session. She nodded.

"Peter was stellar at charms, and arithmancy. It's why I recruited him out of Hogwarts Lupin was the brains behind the potions." I said.

"So, who do you think is the brains behind this little trio?"

"Hermione Granger?" She asked, scandalized.

"I adore Granger, but she's just a typical Ravenclaw. Bookish, follows the rules of the school to a T."

"Who is a complete troublemaker behind the scenes. I would be money on it." I said, taking another drag off my cigarette.

"You would know. I for one was completely innocent." She said. I laughed.

"No matter. The reason I wanted to meet was I find myself in need of a Runes Professor. Bethsheda has decided to take a year off. Recruited by the american government if you could believe it." Minerva said. I did. There was something going on in Colorado. A steady stream of Brakebills grads had been recruited to go there, according to Edmund. I had my suspicions, but hadn't found any proof quite yet. I had my own projects going, and I was getting too old to stick my nose into other people's business. That, and Peter promised me I would sleep on the couch for a year if he caught me. The old lumpy one in my office.

"Is Miss Granger enrolled in Runes?" I asked, I had long since gained a mastery in that subject.

Minerva nodded.

"Top of her year. Her and the Malfoy boy are neck and neck."

"I don't have any projects going on that require my utmost attention. I'll teach for a year." I said. She nodded.

"Speaking of the Malfoy boy, you couldn't guess who he was caught in the sixth floor broom closet with." She said.

"Who?" I asked, a smile on my features. I loved a good bit of gossip.

"Ginny Weasley!" She said with a chuckle. I laughed.

"I'm surprised there hasn't been a declaration of war." I murmured. The Weasley's and the Malfoy's hated each other.

The conversation drifted off into other matters, and ended. We parted ways with promises to talk soon. The remainder of the summer flew by, it was time for my return to Hogwarts.

The first week went smoothly. My class of six NEWT students were an interesting lot. All of them were quite gifted. I'd be in a shadow war with Fogg for at least two of them. The term was preceding nicely. Soon, it was time for the Halloween feast. I enjoyed my dinner and returned my quarters. I paused as soon as I got to the door. The magical lock I had placed on the door had been picked, as had the small ward I had placed. Minerva had forbidden me from placing anything too severe on the door. I frowned. I gestured with one hand, opening the door, and calling up magic with my other, ready to burn whoever had trespassed to cinders. Or at least wipe their mind and send them on their way. Three people greeted me. Harry Potter was suspended upside down by ropes. Neville Longbottom was trapped, by his robes, to the walls with a sticking spell. Hermione Granger, who had managed to get the farthest into my quarters, was stuck by a rune trap. A glow of magical energy shone around her in a ring, and she was making gestures with her hands. Sparks flared from her fingertips, but she hadn't noticed me enter. The three of them looked up, or in the case of Potter, down at once. I smirked, walked over to my desk, and took a seat. With an idle wave of my hands, the spells trapping the trio undid themselves. Another spell bound their hands in place.

"Would you care to tell me, why exactly, you three are trespassing." I asked. The boys exchanged nervous looks. Hermione looked at the both of them and scoffed.

"Professor Riddle, is it true that you visited another world one?" She asked. I raised my eyebrow.

"Who told you that?" I asked.

"My Grandfather, Professor." Neville said. He looked like a younger version of his father. Frank was head of the DMLE, and a protege of mine.

"With all due respect, Neville, that wasn't Rigel's story to tell." I said.

"Neville, he won't believe us." Potter murmured.

"Oh?" I asked.

"Try me." I said with a smile.

Hermione stepped forward.

"Well, you see. Last summer, we were in my Grandma's house in Cokeworth, and we found this funny mirror, and there was this funny rabbit with a watch." She began, and I settled into to listen to their story.


End file.
